Heineken sees volumes jump, maintains cautious tone

The Dutch brewer – which also owns Tiger and Birra Moretti, among others – said revenues in the three months to March end rose 7.2%, to €8.2bn.

Organic beer volumes grew by 4.7%, comfortably above analyst expectations for a 2.5% rise.

All regions saw growth during the quarter, with the Americas and Europe in particular benefiting from the early Easter.

Premium beer volumes also performed well, up 7.3%.

Dolf van den Brink, chief executive, said: “We had an encouraging start to 2024. All regions grew volume and net revenue, and we continued to see a sequential improvement in the performance of the business, growing in line or ahead of the category in the majority of our markets.”

However, the brewer, the world’s second-largest after AB InBev, also acknowledged the difficult economic backdrop.

It said: “We continue to see the economic environment as challenging and uncertain, and will remain agile and focused on strengthening our business.

“Despite the solid start to the year, we cannot extrapolate the reported top-line growth to the rest of the year.

“All-in-all, we continue to expect operating profit to grow organically by low-to-high single digits and net profit organic growth lower than the operating profit growth.”

As at 1015 BST, shares in Heineken were up 1%.