SABMiller's shares rise after growing demand for soft drinks despite China's bad weather
RISING demand for soft drinks added a fizz to brewer SABMiller’s first-half profits despite a hit from bad weather in China.
Soft drink sales volumes bubbled up 9 per cent to 35.5 million hectolitres, driven by trade in Europe, Africa and Latin America, in the six months to the end of September.
SABMiller, which bottles Coca-Cola as well as its own soft-drink brands, said they helped to make up for a 1 per cent fall in lager volumes.
Adjusted group pre-tax profit rose 2 per cent to £1.8billion.
Chief executive Alan Clark said SABMiller was fundamentally a beer business but its soft drinks were very important. “We can drive soft drinks as well as beer,” he said.
The group, which makes Peroni, Pilsner Urquell and Grolsch, took a hit from rain in China’s central provinces during the peak summer and from a depressed and competitive consumer market in Australia.
In Europe, lager volume growth in the UK, the Czech Republic and Poland was eclipsed by declines in Italy, Romania and the group’s Turkish business.
Shares in SABMiller, which made an unsuccessful bid for Heineken in September, rose 43½p to 3555p.
