Drinks firm Royal Unibrew generated net revenue of DKK 6.2 billion (€830 million) in the first half of its financial year, equating to organic growth of 6% year-on-year.
This was driven by the strong performance of its multi-beverage businesses in Northern Europe, with EBIT in the region seeing organic growth of 19% in the first half.
EBITDA for the first half amounted to DKK 976 million (€131 million), up from DKK 940 million (€126.2 million) last year, the company noted.
Chief executive Lars Jensen added, "We delivered strong top-line growth in [the first half of 2023], as our multi-beverage businesses in Northern Europe continue to carry on strongly.
"We have seen inflation in input costs since the beginning of 2021, and I am pleased to say that we have reached our ambition of mitigating the absolute increase in input costs during [the second quarter]. However, there is still inflation from salary increases and currency-related inflation that need to be mitigated."
Other Highlights
Royal Unibrew saw an organic volume decline of 3% in the period, to 6.6 million hectolitres.
The company attributed the decline to tough comparable numbers in Western Europe and the international segment.
In Italy, poor weather and de-stocking in the wholesale beer on-trade channel contributed to an organic volume decline of 29% in the Western Europe division.
In Africa, political and macroeconomic challenges continued into the second quarter, driving negative organic volume growth of 18% in the company's international business unit.
Outlook
The company expects full-year EBIT guidance to range between DKK 1.6 billion and DKK 1.75 billion, up from its previous guidance of DKK 1.55 billion and DKK 1.75 billion.
The company has reduced its net revenue forecasts to around DKK 13 billion (€1.7 billion) due to poor weather in the Nordics in July and August and a weak Norwegian and Swedish Kroner.
