Molson Coors posted a 33% rise in net income in its first-quarter results despite falling net sales in every operating region.
The company’s net income for the quarter increased to $278.1 million from the $205.5 million figure registered in the same period last year as a result of a cash payment related to a purchase price adjustment to its acquisition of the Miller International business.
Despite this income rise, the company’s net sales fell 4.8% year-on-year to $2.33 billion, and the company performed particularly poorly in the US as its net sales fell 5.8%, which the company attributes to lower sales of premium light beer and fewer sales to wholesalers.
Net sales in Canada fell 2.5% to $284 million after the poor performance of its brands in Western Canada.
Molson Coors’s international division net sales declined 7.1% in the quarter, which was driven mainly by the loss of the Modelo contract in Japan and fewer sales in Mexico following price rises.
Molson Coors president and chief executive officer Mark Hunter said: “In the first quarter, which is seasonally the smallest profit quarter of the year for us, our Canadian, European and International businesses maintained their underlying progress from 2017.
“The US beer industry had a softer-than-anticipated start to the year, which impacted both top- and bottom-line performance and which, when coupled with the US distributor inventory destocking and the anticipated cycling of the indirect tax provision benefit in Europe last year, led to an underlying EBITDA reduction of 18.5 percent for our company in the first quarter.
“We do not see these results as indicative of our full-year performance versus our plan, and we remain committed to delivering our 2018 guidance.”
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