The company said that its performance in the Russian and Ukraine markets during the first financial quarter was underpinned by strong volume growth in both its Russian and Ukraine markets, although a weak euro had had a negative impact on profits. The company estimated that EBITDA had been impacted by at least €1.3 million because of the strength of the rouble against the euro.
Although production volumes were up by 48.6 per cent, the strength of the euro combined with increased costs meant that the company posted a quarterly loss €1.8 million. However this marked a significant improvement on the same quarter in 2003 when net losses stood at €7.1 million. In the Russian market beer production volumes were up to 2.9 million hecolitres for the quarter, compared to 1.8 million hecolitres for the corresponding quarter in 2003. This represented an increase of 61 per cent, representing the company's continued drive into the two markets, which has been backed by a series of new product launches in the past year. Growth was slower in the Ukraine, where production volumes were up from 830,000 hecolitres to 1.01 hecolitres in the first quarter of the year. This represented an increase of 21.4 per cent.
However, in line with the new product launches, the company also said that its sales, marketing and distribution costs for the quarter had risen substantially in the course of the quarter, up by 41 per cent to €36.1 million, compared to €25.6 million in the corresponding quarter in 2003.
The company noted particularly strong sales growth for its Sibirskaya Korona, Klinskoye and Tolistiak brands. It also said that sales of beer in PET bottles had increased 65.1 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Sun Interbrew is currently the second largest brewer in Russia - behind Baltika breweries - and the largest in the Ukraine.