United Breweries raises profit in January-through-March quarter. India’s major brewer reported a 20.5 percent increase in quarterly profit on 5 May, lifted by solid demand for higher-priced beers and lower excise duty costs. The Kingfisher beer maker’s standalone profit rose to INR 973.8 million (USD 11.50 million) in the fourth quarter ended 31 March, from INR 808.4 million a year earlier. United Breweries, which is majority-owned by Heineken, reported a 7.6 percent decline in revenue after it briefly stopped supplies to one of India’s top beer consuming states, Telangana, in January. Still, volume sales were up 5 percent in the quarter, with sales of premium beers, led by Kingfisher Ultra Max and Heineken Silver, jumping 24 percent. Total expenses dropped 8.6 percent, led by a 21 percent decline in excise duty.
Dutch Trappist abbey and brewery Maria Toevlucht may close as there are too few monks to sustain a community. The abbey, founded in 1900, is home to just six monks, after three monks passed away last year. The monks have asked the Trappist’s General Chapter for permission to close the abbey. If that permission is granted, the monks will depart in September. A decision on the future of the brewery has not been made yet. The monks themselves, together with a lay brewmaster, have been brewing the Zundert beer since 2013. They own the brewery and the brand. Among the Trappist breweries, it is one of the smaller ones in terms of beer output. Zundert beer may still be produced under new owners, but it can no longer be called a Trappist beer. To carry the Trappist seal, the brewery needs to be part of an abbey community. The only other Trappist brewery in the Netherlands is at the Koningshoeve abbey in Berkel-Enschot, also in Noord-Brabant. It produces the popular La Trappe beers.
Molson Coors: Macro pressures will end, just don’t know when. In the three months until the end of March, the firm reported a 10.4 percent year-over-year decline in net sales revenue to USD 2.3 billion, while underlying pre-tax income plummeted 49.5 percent to USD 131 million. Financial volume sales decreased 14.3 percent year-over-year, due to the loss of large contract brewing agreements with brewers Pabst and Labatt. Its own brand volume sales declined 8 percent. Luckily, President Trump’s tariffs do not affect Molson Coors’ input cost much, as the firm imports only a very small portion of its US portfolio from Canada and Mexico, which are brands Molson and Sol, respectively. However, it still imports the majority of Fever-Tree’s tonics from Europe, since buying a stake in the British firm in January. But Molson Coors has the ability to onshore this brand through co manufacturing, etc in its network.
AB-InBev’s first quarter: profit up, volume sales down. People around the world are drinking less beer, at least that by AB-InBev. And yet the group, on 8 May, reported first-quarter net profit of USD 2.15 billion, nearly twice what it was a year ago. Revenue was up 1.5 percent year-over-year to USD 13.6 billion, but volume sales were down 2.2 percent. The world’s major brewer is thus achieving what many consumer goods companies are currently striving for: profitability before volume. The moneymen seem to like what they are seeing. Still, declining sales are a warning sign, especially if the trend continues. At the end of the day, AB-InBev as well as its peers Heineken, Carlsberg and Molson Coors, thrive on volume sales – and not just on business efficiency. If consumption continues to shift or even fall in the long term, price increases and cost cuttings alone may not be enough.
Indie brewers kept out of UK pubs by multinationals, a SIPA survey finds. Whilst demand for independent beer remains strong, UK brewers face strong headwinds from increased taxation, market access restrictions and reduced alcohol consumption. Average craft beer production climbed 10 percent last year, but nearly half (46 percent) of independent brewers said their main priority is survival and almost a third (29 percent) expect turnover to fall. The number of breweries is already in decline, dropping by 100 last year to 1,715, according to figures released earlier this year. Tough market conditions are exacerbated by difficulties in selling to local pubs. SIBA members said that 60 percent of the pubs within 40 miles were inaccessible to them, choking off potential sources of revenue and reducing choice for consumers.
Swedish microbreweries can sell beer to visitors after a “lecture”. Sweden’s parliament voted in favour of the government’s draft law to legalise on-site sales for small breweries, wineries and distilleries. The proposal passed with 154 votes for and 129 votes against. Among those voting against the draft law were Leftists, who see it as a first step towards dismantling the state’s decades-old monopoly on alcohol sales and a threat to public health. Others thought the centre-right government’s self-billed “freedom reform” was not business-friendly enough. The government’s so-called “farm sale” law takes effect on 1 June and runs for six years before a mandatory evaluation. It states that visitors must be on a paid tour and must listen to what is described as a lecture “with real content” about the drink first, as well as facts about the negative effects of alcohol consumption, before they can buy a small “souvenir-style” amount of alcohol (eg 3 litres of beer). Many microbreweries do not expect farm sales to bring in a lot of new business. Instead, they are placing their hopes on an alcohol tax reduction as of 1 July, when brewers with a production of less than 30,000 hl beer annually will see their alcohol tax cut in half.
UK strikes trade deal with India. It is not exactly the deepest and most comprehensive trade deal the UK has ever signed, but Scotch whisky distillers were elated. The agreement, which has been in the making for three years, will reduce tariffs on 90 percent of British goods currently attracting import taxes in India. Most importantly, the levies on British whisky and gin will be halved, from 150 percent to 75 percent, once the deal comes into force next year. By the 10th year of the deal, the tariff will be reduced to 40 percent. The Scotch Whisky Association called it a “once-in-a-generation deal and a landmark moment”. It has the potential to increase Scotch whisky exports to India by GBP 1 billion (USD 1.33 billion) over the next five years and create 1,200 jobs across the UK.
A-B and SpikedSeltzer inventors head to trial over earnout clash. After quietly simmering in the Connecticut Superior Court for the past three years, a contract dispute between Anheuser-Busch (a subsidiary of AB-InBev) and the inventors/investors of SpikedSeltzer is headed to trial by jury. The dispute centres on whether Anheuser-Busch underpaid earnout bonuses owed from its 2016 acquisition of Boathouse Beverage, the inventor of SpikedSeltzer. The earnout in question is USD 90 million according to the website law360.com.
BrewDog has reportedly lost almost GBP 7 million (USD 9.3 million) in America last year as the company cuts back its operations. The beer firm poured GBP 4.2 million into its US branch in 2024 but has recorded a loss of GBP 6.7 million, blaming a slowdown in the American craft beer market. It was reported that BrewDog has slashed its operations in the US, with its brewery in Columbus, Ohio, running at 30 percent capacity. It has also cut the number of federal states it sells to, from 33 to 14. BrewDog USA ranked 30th among US craft brewers in 2024, according to the Brewers Association.
Boston Beer says tariffs could cost up to USD 30 million. The big driver of those costs is the aluminium Boston Beer uses for its cans. The challenges with potential tariffs come on top of negative market trends in beer and other alcoholic beverages. Hard seltzer sales were down 5 percent for the first quarter of 2025, and beer sales were weaker than expected. Chairman Jim Koch called the slow decline in beer consumption “the new normal” amid consumers’ health considerations and competing markets such as cannabis.
Austria’s independent brewers poke fun of Heineken’s Brau Union. Who actually owns the beer we drink? This is exactly what Austria’s privately-owned breweries want to communicate. And they are doing it with rather striking and funny slogans. However, they do not want their campaign to be seen as “corporation bashing”, but as purely educational. Throughout the month of April, a national billboard and social media campaign drew attention to the fact that two out of three beers brands drunk in Austria are owned by Brau Union/Heineken. In Vienna alone, some 180 posters were stuck up at bus stops and the like. Without directly mentioning Heineken by name, this was a confrontational approach. One poster read: “Three Austrian beers meet. Two speak Dutch. No joke: 2 out of 3 beers drunk in Austria come from a major Dutch company! Therefore: Enjoy a non-corporate beer!” Another poster claimed that “the price of a “corporate beer” is diversity. A third one said: “Axel brews with us. Excel at the Group?”. According to Hubert Stöhr, the association’s chairman, “it has become necessary to inform consumers more transparently about who is behind their favourite beer: a large corporation or an Austrian privately-owned brewery.”
Trump tariffs could hike Constellation’s costs by USD 1 billion this year due to the25 percent tariffs introduced by President Trump, which took effect on 4 April. The levy applies to all imported canned beer and empty aluminium cans. Although the company’s major beer brands like Modelo, Corona, and Pacifico are not subject to tariffs on Mexican imports, the aluminium packaging is. Constellation’s latest financial report shows that beer sales made up 78 percent of its total net revenue in the previous quarter. In light of the new tariffs, the company has revised its future guidance, scaling back both its earnings and sales expectations. Beer sales in fiscal 2026 are now expected to be relatively flat, and projected annual growth over the medium term has been adjusted to 2 percent to 4 percent, down from the previous forecast of 6 percent to 8 percent.
German brewers face 35 percent tariff on canned beer to the US. Not only will importers pay the baseline 10 percent tariff. They will also have to pay a 25 percent levy if the beer comes in cans. According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, the average price of German exports to the US last year was EUR 141 (USD 160) per hl for bottled beer and EUR 94 (USD 106) per hl for canned beer. The impact on prices, however, depends on a host of factors: at the level of individual German brewers, importers, distributors and retailers, and ultimately also on the impact of Mr Trump’ tariff policy on the production costs of US brewers.
Danes boycott US products like Coca-Cola. Because President Trump keeps threatening to annex Greenland, American relations with Denmark are particularly tense. This is apparently also reflected in the consumption of Coca-Cola products in Denmark. Carlsberg is reportedly struggling with declining soft drinks sales in its home market, where it bottles Coca-Cola beverages. Smaller local brands are gaining market share against US competitors as a result of the boycott, but that the impact on Carlsberg’s overall sales is not “dramatic”, the firm said.