Brewer Heineken Ireland has reported that sales in the first half of this year rose by 3% compared with a year earlier to €153m. It says its share of the beer market moved up 0.7 points to 21.6%, mainly due to strong performances from Heineken and Coors.
The company said pub sales volumes fell 2.6%, a slower pace of decline compared with last year, while off-licence volumes were up 9%.
Its Dutch parent company reported a sharp fall in net profits in the first six months of the year because of high once-off charges, which included a costly competition fine from the European Commission.
Heineken's net profit fell 30.4% compared with the same period last year to €302m on 6.8% higher sales of €6.1 billion.
In April this year, the beer maker was slapped with a fine of €219m by the European Commission for taking part in price fixing in the Dutch market between 1996 and 1999. Heineken has appealed the decision.
Without the fine and other once-off costs, Heineken said its net profit would have increased by 33.6% to €548m, driven by sales growth in central and eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.
Analysts said growth in the US had been slightly disappointing, with sales volumes of Amstel Light down 9.5%.
