Heineken boosts revenues in contracting beer market

Heineken Ireland boosted its revenues by almost 6% last year as it continued to outperform a contracting beer market.

The company, yesterday, reported revenues of €505.5m for 2014, representing a 5.97% rise on the €477m generated in the previous 12 months.

“2014 was another strong year for Heineken Ireland, which has seen us outperform a beer market that declined by 0.3% in 2014. We will continue building on this momentum in 2015, developing our leading and balanced beer portfolio to meet all consumer needs,” Maggie Timoney, chief executive of Heineken’s Irish operations, said.

The Heineken brand itself, remained Ireland’s leading lager product last year and while the outlook for the market remains fragile, the company said signs of stabilisation of beer volumes in the pub trade exist.

A strong year of growth for the Coors Light brand was noted, in the Irish market, while the Desperados and Tiger brands each had “a stellar year”, achieving double digit sales growth.

On a group-wide basis, the Dutch brewing giant reported a 3.3% rise in annual revenues to €21.2bn and an 11% jump in net profit to €1.52bn.

“Our strong performance reflects the success of our strategy.

“We continued to invest in our portfolio of brands and we have significantly improved our commercial execution,” according to group chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, who added further profit and revenue growth should be achieved this year, despite market challenges.