World: SABMiller reports 3% lager volume growht in Q2 2013

SABMiller Plc, the world’s second-biggest brewer, reported a resumption of quarterly volume growth as market conditions improved in Europe and North America and emerging-market businesses resisted a wider slowdown.

The London-based company said on October 17 so-called organic lager volume rose 3 percent in the second quarter, reversing a 1 percent decline in the opening three months of the financial year.

SABMiller’s performance was stronger than analysts anticipated as sales declined at a slower pace in Europe and North America and the brewer steered clear of the emerging-market slowdown that has affected consumer-goods companies including Unilever and Danone.

Conditions in both Europe and North America saw “a modest improvement” in the second quarter, SABMiller Chief Executive Officer Alan Clark said in the statement.

Organic volume in Europe slid 4 percent in the first half compared with the median estimate for a 5 percent decline. The performance represented an improvement on the first-quarter’s 7 percent decline.

Sales to wholesalers at the brewer’s MillerCoors LLC unit in the U.S. slid 1.5 percent in the second quarter, better than the first quarter’s 5.3 percent drop. Declines in Coors Light and Miller Lite were partially offset by brands including Redd’s and Leinenkugel shandy, the company said.

The brewer said it expects the consumer climates in both Europe and North America to remain under pressure.

SABMiller said it achieved “a strong performance” in Africa, where volume rose 9 percent in the first half, and “good progress” in Latin America, South Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. The brewer gets the largest proportion of sales from emerging markets compared with its main rivals, helping compensate for declining beer sales in Europe and the U.S.

Volume rose 1 percent in Latin America, SABMiller’s largest region, in line with estimates. Civil unrest weighed on improvements in Colombia, though sales in Peru returned to growth in the second quarter after tax increases.