SHAH ALAM: Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd is targeting higher sales for financial year 2023 (FY23) on the back of the global economic reopening.
The group’s managing director Stefano Clini said that this is despite risks of global recession, rising global inflationary pressures, and escalating commodity prices.
“We have achieved record results this year, which is even better than before Covid-19. We have successfully kept our profit growing and our margin intact despite all the turmoil of the past two years and our objective is to keep doing so in the years to come,” he told reporters at the Q4’22 results briefing yesterday.
He said that keeping its profit margin intact is going to be the priority as it is critical to preserve the value of its business for their shareholders.
“We are confident that our new corporate strategy, SAIL’27, will continue to guide in delivering sustainable long-term value creation for shareholders,” he added.
He stressed that 2023 will certainly be another challenging year as global recession looms and rising inflation are expected to affect consumer sentiment.
“We do expect consumers to feel the pinch of the increased cost of living which will have an impact on consumption as a whole. We just hope it will not hit ours,” he said.
Carlsberg mainstream brands returned to a year-on-year volume growth of 29% as Clini said its marketing campaigns were executed with scale and impact.
“We carried on accelerating premiumisation amongst discerning consumers through our 1664 Somersby Cider and Connor’s Stout Porter brands, resulting in a 32% growth momentum,” he added.
Carlsberg’s net profit for the quarter (Q4’22) decreased to RM60.12 million compared to RM71.42 million the same quarter last year as a result of the lower profit in Malaysia and by the prosperity tax provision.
The group’s revenue increased by 13% to RM612.75 million compared to the same quarter last year (RM542.32 million) as both Malaysia and Singapore operations have shown overall better sales for the quarter.
Malaysia’s revenue increased by 8.4% to RM427.7 million with growth in both volume and value since the country transitioned into the endemic phase effective April 1, 2022. Singapore also registered sales revenue for 4Q’22 of RM185.1 million, an increase of 25.3% following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and lifting of travel restrictions.
It reported a net profit of RM317 million for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY22), up from RM200.99 million last year (FY21), driven by top-line growth and higher profits in both the Malaysia and Singapore operations.
Revenue for FY22 improved to RM2.41 billion from RM1.77 billion in the same period of the preceding year on the back of premiumisation, revenue management efforts as well as undisrupted operations as compared to the brewery shutdown in the previous year.
It is proposing a final dividend of 25 sen per share, subject to the shareholders’ approval at the upcoming 53rd AGM. Together with the interim dividends declared for the first nine months of FY22 amounting to 63 sen per share, this brings the total declared and proposed dividend for FY22 to 88 sen per share.