Jean-François van Boxmeer, chairman of the executive board and CEO, said: “This has been a strong first-half performance, confirming that our value strategy is delivering results. The strength of our brand portfolio has enabled us to support our margins, achieving a stable top-line performance despite lower volumes.
“Our rigorous Total Cost Management programme is delivering early results, with annualised savings of €120m achieved. We see substantial opportunity to drive down our cost base in the second half of the year and beyond. Focused actions by our management teams to improve profitability, reduce capital expenditure and control working capital has improved our free operating cash flow by more than €500m.
“We continue to prioritise investments where we see opportunity to grow the value of our operations. This is demonstrated by double-digit revenue and Ebit growth in our African region and the organic profit growth in western Europe. We have maintained the price positioning of our brands with the Heineken brand outperforming the overall portfolio.
“The integration of Scottish & Newcastle and our other newly acquired businesses is now completed. There are clear signs that our specific plans to improve profitability in each of these businesses and to strengthen our long-term market position in the UK are bearing fruit.
“The economic and trading conditions remain difficult, and there will be continued pressure on volumes in the second half of 2009. However, our focus on brand building, prioritised investment and rigorous cost reduction will continue to deliver value in the second half of the year.”
Source: Heineken International
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