Irish sales help revenues at Heineken

Market share gains in Ireland and a number of its other major western European markets helped mitigate sliding sales volumes elsewhere in the continent for Dutch beer giant Heineken in the first quarter of this year.

The drinks group yesterday reported a 3.4% year-on-year increase in revenue — to just shy of €4.5bn — for the first three months of this year. While Heineken’s main growth is coming from its Africa/Middle-East (first quarter consolidated revenue rising, there, by nearly 5%) and Americas (revenue up by almost 9% in the period) operations, Western Europe saw sales growth of almost 2%.

Management noted that while lower volumes were seen in the British, Italian and Swiss markets; good volume growth was evident in markets such as Ireland, Holland, France, Belgium and Spain. It added that increased marketing spend, innovation and brand development drove market share gains in those territories during the most quarter.