Heineken Malaysia Berhad revenue for the third quarter declined by 18% to RM389.9 million compared to RM473.8 million in 2020. The brewery attributed this sombre result to the adverse effects due to the continued suspension of its operations in line with the full lockdown imposed by the Government.
Group profits before tax dropped 16% to RM67.2 million as compared to RM80.5 million along with lower revenue, mitigated by effective cost management and on-going cost saving initiatives. For the nine-month period, Group revenue grew 4%, mainly due to better revenue management and higher in-home consumption as business and economic activities started to recover.
The nine months PBT increased by 50% to RM197 million principally due to revenue growth, effective allocation of marketing investment, right-sizing of its organisation and cost base, faster adoption of digitalisation, and the absence of the one-off settlement of the Customs’ Bills of Demand of RM7.2 million incurred in June 2020. Whilst the Group delivered improved performance for the nine months ended 30 September 2021 versus the same period of 2020, compared to the pre-Covid period of 2019, the Group PBT was 33% lower.
Commenting on the outlook, Roland Bala, Managing Director of HEINEKEN Malaysia said, “As the Covid situation stabilises, the Group is hopeful that further relaxation of restrictions and opening of the tourism sector will accelerate the recovery of the F&B sector. This will accordingly improve the performance in the fourth quarter.
On headwinds, Roland commented, “We continue to see illicit alcohol as a concern. We welcome the stance taken by the Government to not increase excise duties on beers in the recent tabling of Budget 2022, as any hike in excise rates will further fuel illicit alcohol demand.
The bigger concerns are illegal trade and smuggling which have caused the Government to incur huge tax revenue losses, disrupted legitimate businesses and is exposing more consumers to cheaper, unregulated alcohol.
