Heineken upgrades profits forecast

HEINEKEN has marginally upgraded its full-year profit forecast for 2009on the back of a more stable-than-expected third quarter.

The Dutch brewing giant — which owns the Murphy’s and Beamish stout brands in Ireland — said that group revenue was down by 0.4%, year-on-year, at €4.07 billion for the three-months up to end of September.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) had double digit growth while cost savings were delivered via the closures of four breweries in France and Spain (a further four are due to close in Russia, Finland and Britain).

The group’s management is now anticipating low double-digit percentage growth in net profit for this year, a slight upturn on its previous outlook of high single-digit percentage growth.

Although the latest quarterly update didn’t include any mention of the group’s Irish operations, it did say that its market share in Britain had improved during the period.

In Ireland, Heineken is the market leading brand in the lager market and the company has a 27% share of the overall beer sector.

Earlier this year, Heineken Ireland corporate affairs manager Declan Farmer, said that 2009 performance for the business here would be “difficult to call” and “significant challenges” could be evident in the industry in the coming couple of years.

However, a couple of months ago — as part of the group’s half-year results — Heineken Ireland reported a year-on-year boost of 35% to turnover to €211m; aided by the acquisition of Beamish and its sister lager, Fosters.

The company added that it was not looking to offload any brands from its portfolio.