Posting its FY2021 results on Friday, Carlsberg reported organic revenue growth of 10% on the prior year (13.8% reported growth), with organic volume growth of 7.4% (reported growth of 9.3%).
But it warns that beer prices are set to rise as inflation makes raw materials more costly.
In the second half of 2021, it began seeing 'significant price increases' for commodities, packaging materials and energy: albeit with large variations between categories, markets and regions. As a result, it is assuming an increase in cost of good sold per hl of 10-12%. Volatility remains high, however.
“2022 will be another challenging year," notes Carlsberg. "COVID-19 is expected to continue to impact our markets to various degrees. At the same time, our business will be impacted by substantial increases in input costs, which we aim to offset in absolute terms through higher revenue/hl and continued tight focus on costs."
Performance in 2022 is also expected to vary greatly between regions.
“In Western Europe, we assume that the on-trade channel will be less impacted by COVID-19 than in 2021, although we are expecting some on-trade disruption at the beginning of the year due to restrictions. In Asia, we expect another volatile year. While the vaccination rate is increasing in many markets in the region, COVID-19 outbreaks still pose a risk of national or regional lockdowns.
“In the southern part of the Central & Eastern Europe region we assume a lower impact on the on-trade from COVID-19 than in 2021. In the eastern part of the region, we expect consumer sentiment to be increasingly impacted by accelerating inflation, which may impact beer market dynamics negatively.”