World: Molson Coors Beverage Company sees first-quarter sales beat expectations

Molson Coors Beverage Company has seen its first-quarter sales beat expectations owing to price hikes and sustained demand for beer, The Drinks Business reported on May 2.

The North American brewer, which owns brands including Coors, Staropramen, Carling, Madri Excepcional and Blue Moon as well as recently announcing a distribution partnership with vodka brand Black Cow, has been lifting prices of its products after myriad inflated costs have hampered the industry.

The company revealed in its latest statement that “net sales increased 5.9% reported and 8.2% in constant currency driven by favourable price and sales mix offset by a slight decline in financial volume”.

Speaking about the results, Molson Coors president and CEO Gavin Hattersley said that the figures “reaffirm our belief that we’ve laid the right groundwork to continue growing sustainably in 2023 and in the future” and explained how Molson Coors has delivered its “eighth consecutive quarter of top-line growth” and increased its “bottom-line on an underlying and constant currency basis by high double digits”.

Molson Coors CFO Tracey Joubert added: “While we remain mindful of the dynamic global macro-economic environment and beer industry softness, our first quarter performance coupled with the strong foundation we have laid over the last three years, provide us confidence to reaffirm our 2023 annual guidance. Achievement of this guidance would mark another year of growth on a constant-currency basis – delivering on our goal of sustainable top and bottom-line growth.”

According to reports via Reuters, shares for the brewer rose 1% to US$61 in premarket trading and analysts have said carryover price increases from Molson Coors’ second round of hikes taken in 2022 are essentially now assisting the company’s fiscal progress during the first quarter. The company saw net sales rise about 6% to US$2.35 billion in the quarter ended 31 March, smashing an estimate of US$2.23 billion, according to Refinitiv.

The company, which has also owned Aspall cider brand since 2018, revealed in March that its sales of Aspall Cyder were 50% above the pre-pandemic level following a completed a £16 million investment in the Aspall Cyder House, next to the village of Aspall, as well as a £3m advertising campaign.

This year, Molson Coors also unveiled the launch of an alcohol-free variant for its Staropramen lager brand after spending two years perfecting the recipe and has also endured the wrath of the Comite Champagne leading to more than 2,352 of its beers being destroyed at customs due to infringement issues.

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