Carlsberg saw its underlying operating profit grow 6% during 2024, reaching the top end of its forecast range after delivering revenue growth and gross margin improvement despite a “challenging environment in some of our major markets”.
The world’s third-largest brewer said it now expects profit growth of 1% to 5% this year.
Full-year reported revenue slightly beat expectations, increasing 1.9% to DKK75.0bn (+2.4% organic). However, organic volume growth was just 0.4% after robust performance in Central & Eastern Europe and India (+4.0%) was offset by weakness in Western Europe (-1.1%) and Asia (-1.0%).
Growth categories included premium beer (+2%), alcohol-free brews (+6%), Beyond Beer (+5%) and soft drinks (+1%), with several of its international brands also performing well – Tuborg (+5%), Carlsberg (+9%), 1664 Blanc (+6%), and Brooklyn (+5%).
The company expects a “relatively stable” consumer environment in 2025 but warned of continued uncertainty in Asia and Europe.
CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said: “2024 was a year of major events that will shape the future of Carlsberg. The launch and implementation of our refreshed strategy, Accelerate SAIL, with its well-defined growth levers, the acquisition of Britvic, the buyout of our partner in India and Nepal and the expanded partnership with PepsiCo in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were important milestones that will enable us to deliver long-term sustainable growth and value creation.
“Given the challenging environment in some of our major markets, which impacted the volume development, we’re satisfied with our solid 2024 results.”
