Heineken Malaysia Berhad saw a decline in revenue and profit for the full year ended Dec 31 compared to the same period in 2019. The brewer saw Group Revenue for the 12 months decline by 24 percent.
The Group’s profit before tax after Q2 dropped by 52 percent mainly due to the suspension of operations and a one-off settlement of the Customs’ Bills of Demand amounting to RM7.2 million in June 2020.
During Q4, Group revenue continued to decrease by 24 percent to RM519 million from RM680 million in the same quarter in Q4FY19. The decline was mainly due to lower sales impacted by Putrajaya’s implementation of wider restrictions and stricter standard operation procedures on social activities.
Speaking at the Full Year 2020 (FY2020) Financial Results Media and Analyst Briefing, Heineken Malaysia’s Managing Director, Roland Bala also underlined the importance of e-commerce during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The brewer’s e-commerce platform, Drinkies is the first channel to deliver beer and cider within 60 minutes or as scheduled.
“Even though the revenue for Drinkies is at below one percent at the time, we are committed to continually invest in e-commerce to provide to our tech-savvy customers,” Roland said.
This amplifies the need for alcohol consumption responsibility even though Malaysia has one of the lowest rates of road deaths caused by alcohol consumption, according to the latest data from the World Health Organisation.
With the launch of the Drinkies mobile app, Heineken Malaysia will extend coverage to other areas like Johor and Ipoh, as well as extend product varieties on the platform. The alcohol e-commerce platform hopes to be the main driver for Heineken’s revenue in 2021.
