Carlsberg Brewery MY reports profit, says 2023 will be challenging but faith remains on SAIL 27

Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia has reported a net profit of RM317.0 million on the back of a revenue of RM2.4 billion, for the financial year ended 31 December 2022. This set of strong results was mainly driven by its focus on premiumisation and revenue management efforts, said the group.

On the fourth quarter which ended 31 December 2022 (Q4FY22), the group registered a revenue growth of 13.0% to RM612.8 million, while net profit fell by 15.8% to RM60.1 million versus the corresponding quarter in 2021.

These lower earnings were mainly attributed to one-off expenses pertaining to the disposal of the old bottling line, the prosperity tax in Malaysia, and a higher marketing spend given the earlier timing of the 2023 Chinese New Year (CNY), said the Group.

The group’s managing director Stefano Clini said the group is proud to deliver a strong performance for the year 2022 due to an impressive efforts by employees in executing the final year of our SAIL’22 strategy, “and unwavering support by business partners in driving growth in both on- and off-trade”.

In 2016, Carlsberg announced its global corporate strategy, SAIL’22 to be rolled out across its Malaysia and Singapore operations in end March. It was created to set the strategic direction of the group for until year 2022. SAIL’22 was created to strengthen the Group’s core business, take advantage of growth opportunities and deliver enhanced shareholder value. The strategy is supported by an efficiency and value creation programme.

Clini said that 2023 will certainly be another challenging year as global recession looms and rising inflation are expected to affect consumer sentiment. However, the company is confident that its new strategy, SAIL’27, will continue to guide it in detail. Last year, Carlsberg announced its five-year strategy SAIL’27 which is an evolution of SAIL’22. SAIL’27 is built around its purpose of brewing for a better today and tomorrow, to realise the company’s ambition of “being the most successful, professional and attractive brewer”.

“We are pleased that our mainstream brands returned to a year-on-year volume growth of 29% as Carlsberg’s ‘Celebration’-themed marketing campaigns around Chinese New Year, Kaamatan and Gawai Festivals, Carlsberg’s 175th Birthday, Carlsberg x Liverpool FC 30-year partnership, just to name a few, were executed with scale and impact. We continued accelerating premiumisation amongst discerning consumers via our 1664, Somersby Cider and Connor’s Stout Porter brands, resulting in a 32% growth momentum,” Clini said.

FY22 also enjoyed undisrupted operations as compared to the brewery shutdown in the previous year. This helped to deliver improved sales in both Malaysia and Singapore in 2022 when the Group celebrated fifty-years of Carlsberg beer local production in Shah Alam and the 175th anniversary of Carlsberg beer globally.

The Group’s Sri Lankan-based associate company Lion Brewery (Ceylon) also performed strongly, despite the political and economic challenges in the country.

“We are also pleased by our sustainability performance for FY22 and we are committed to further enhance our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programme – Together Towards ZERO and Beyond (TTZAB) that aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. TTZAB is our strategy to tackling climate change and our commitments to addressing ESG-related risks and opportunities. We took learnings from the materiality assessment we conducted last year and will prioritise our resources to deliver positive impacts on matters material to our business sustainability while contributing positively to our communities,” said Clini.

Last year, Carlsberg Malaysia appointed Olga Pulyaeva as marketing director, replacing Caroline Moreau who is now GM of the Singapore operations. Pulyaeva was most recently brand development director at Baltika Breweries, Carlsberg Group's Russian business which was divested on 28 March. The Russian operations previously had a market share of approximately 27% in the country, according to Carlsberg's website.

According to her LinkedIn, Pulyaeva was part of the marketing leadership team in Baltika where she managed a team of nine. She was responsible for the brand leadership across the Central and Eastern European regions, driving alignment in communication and portfolio development in the markets.

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