USA: MillerCoors sales drop in Q1 2018

The parent of MillerCoors said on May 2 that a soft start to the year in the U.S. beer market and an issue with under-shipping product to U.S. distributors resulted in a drop in sales and operating income for the Chicago-based brewer.

MillerCoors, which operates breweries in Milwaukee and represents the United States portion of parent company Molson Coors Brewing Co.’s operations, recorded net sales for the first quarter of 2018 of $1.65 billion, a 5.8 percent decline from $1.75 billion the year before, Denver-based Molson Coors reported. Earnings before taxes and other expenses dropped 12.2 percent to $388.9 million from $442.9 million a year ago.

U.S. brand volume decline 3.8 percent, largely because of lower volume in the premium light segment that includes MillerCoors’ top sellers Coors Light and Miller Lite. Sales-to-wholesalers were hurt by the weak U.S. industry conditions, and the timing of wholesale inventories, which included delays in shipments to wholesalers in parts of the country related to the launch of a new ordering system at its brewery in Golden, Colo., that took longer to ramp up than expected, Molson Coors said.

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