Asahi Group recorded profit of almost ¥27 billion ($234.8 million) from net sales of ¥241 billion ($2.1 billion) in its alcohol portfolio alone, according to the company’s first quarterly results since it completed the acquisition of Peroni and Grolsch in October.
The results represent an increase of 19.8% on the same period last year – up from profit of $196 million in the final quarter of 2015.
Asahi completed the acquisition of Miller Brands UK in October, adding premium brands like Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Grolsch and Meantime to its portfolio of beers. The deal was part of SABMiller’s efforts to appease competition regulators with regards to its $109 billion merger with Anheuser-Busch.
The deal for Miller Brands, first mooted back in February last year, was also a sizeable boost to Asahi’s portfolio of brands in Europe.
The Japanese brewer’s full-year results for 2016 also show that it turned over a total of ¥976.6 billion ($8.5 billion) from its alcohol portfolio and ¥363.9 billion ($3.2 billion) from its soft drinks portfolio
Its group-wide turnover was ¥1.8 trillion ($15.7 billion), from which it made a profit of ¥157.3 billion ($1.4 billion).
Its turnover from alcohol accounted for 54% of its group-wide turnover, soft drinks accounted for 20%, and the company’s other activities – including its food division, which generated revenue of ¥110 billion ($967 million) accounted for the remaining 26%.
Group-wide turnover was actually down 7.5% – from ¥1.95 trillion ($17 billion) – but its profit was 2% higher this year than in 2015.
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