Heineken warns of beer price increases as costs bite

Heineken is set to raise its beer prices further as it continues to witness soaring production costs.

It came as the Dutch brewer, which also makes Birra Moretti and Amstel, said it sold more beer than expected over the past three months as drinkers returned to pubs and bars following the removal of pandemic restrictions.

Earlier this year, Heineken said it saw soaring costs due to commodity inflation and rising supply chain costs.

More recently, the war in Ukraine has added another challenge for brewers as grain costs have spiked further.

The company said it will look to hike prices in order to keep on top of surging costs, with more “significant headwinds” predicted later this year.

Dolf van den Brink, chairman of the company, said: “Looking ahead, we see more macro-economic uncertainty and expect significant additional inflationary headwinds putting further pressure on our cost base.

“We will take additional actions including pricing to manage these challenges whilst we continue to invest in superior, balanced growth and sustainable value creation.”

The group said net revenues jumped by 24.9% to 5.7 billion euros (£4.7 billion) for the three months to March, as it was boosted by higher pricing.

The company said revenues also benefited from a 5.7% increase in volumes.

Beer sales volumes increased by 5.2% against the same period last year, as the firm reported particularly strong growth in Europe due to the easing of pandemic rules.

Mr Van den Brink added: “We had a solid start to the year, in line with our expectations, especially benefitting from strong channel mix from the partial on-trade recovery of Europe and assertive pricing across all regions.”