The global economic downturn, bad weather and smoking bans caused global beer sales volumes to drop 6.3% in the first three months of 2009, giant Dutch brewer Heineken said today.
But better selling prices largely compensated for lost volumes, yielding a revenue decline of only 1%, the company said in a first quarter trading update.
Heineken said beer sales volumes declined across West European markets, while growing in Africa and the Middle East.
'Organic volume was adversely impacted by a combination of factors, including the global economic downturn, unfavourable weather, the continued effect of smoking bans, distributor destocking, excise duty increases and selling price increases,' Heineken said.
The company will focus in the coming year on initiatives to reduce debt and costs, and improve the performance of newly acquired companies.
In February, Heineken announced a 74% drop in 2008 net profits but said it remained optimistic as beer consumption was 'relatively resilient' in hard economic times.
