AB InBev sales in Russia drop 13.4% in Q3
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Anheuser-Busch InBev beer sales in Russia slumped 13.4% year-on-year in the third quarter amid generally negative sector dynamics.
They were down 13.1% year-on-year in January-September, a company statement says.
On the other hand, the brewing company's Russian market share increased quarter-on-quarter in Q3. AB InBev intends to focus on improving its balance between profitability and sales volume.
In Central and Eastern European countries, in which category the company includes Russia, Q3 beer sales fell 18.9% to 5.3 million liters and January-September sales 13.3% to 15.5 million liters. Sales in Ukraine dropped 26.2 in Q3 and 13.4% in Q1-Q3.
On the Russian market, the ban on selling beer in kiosks and booths had a negative impact on company sales. H1 2013 sales were down 7%. Consumers are adapting to beer's disappearance from booths more slowly than expected, said the vice president at Carlsberg, Isaac Sheps, who heads the Russian market leader Baltika Brewing Company . Baltika is a Carlsberg subsidiary.
Brewers are talking about a deterioration of consumer confidence in Russia. At the end of Q2, Carlsberg lowered its forecast for Russian beer market dynamics in 2013 against a backdrop of economic slowdown. Earlier, the concern had predicted that the market would remain at about last year's level. Carlsberg, like the brewing company Efes, predicted in mid-2013 that the market would contract about 5% this year due to a sluggish economy and the negative effect of sector regulation by the state.
Heineken saw a double-digit drop in Q3 sales, though it has not reported a specific figure.
AB InBev's Russian subsidiary OJSC Sun InBev was set up in 1999. It brews beer in seven Russian cities: Klin, Volzhsky, Omsk, Perm, Saransk, Ivanovo, and Angarsk.
AB InBev's sales in Russia dropped 12% in 2012 amid overall negative sector dynamics and changes to state regulation.
The company decided in August last year to cease production in Kursk. It said this was compelled by legal restrictions on the beer market, an increased tax burden, and continuing brewing market contraction. The company shuttered its brewery in Novocheboksarsk this summer.