Asahi was the unfortunate victim of a major cyberattack operation in September 2025 that nearly crippled operations and led to one of the most well-publicised instances of profit loss directly linked to cyber crime in the food industry in recent years.
In the firm’s FY2025 financial results announcement published in July 2026, profits officially took a -36.4% drop year-on-year to JPY122.8bn (US$750.7m) and revenue took a -1.5% decline year-on-year to JPY2.9tn (US$17.7bn).
This decline was primarily attributed to the impacts of the cyberattack, though Asahi Group Holdings President and Group CEO Atsushi Katsuki has highlighted strong optimism for the firm to return to profitability moving forward.
“The cyberattack in September 2025 resulted in system disruption in Japan that caused inconvenience and concern for many of our stakeholders. Since then, we have continued to strengthen our information security measures [and] remain committed to continuously enhancing our capabilities to prevent a recurrence,” he said.
“Looking ahead, we will work to steadily expand our business performance. [In fact, in 2025 we had been] making steady progress in advancing our premium strategy and earnings structure reforms across the company.”
Specifically, Asahi has ambitious plans to restore its profits back to above 2024 levels by 2026, and also to build growth momentum to achieve a mid-to-high single digit CAGR this year.
To do this, some of the business’ core strategies are to concentrate on global markets and the expansion of its beverage portfolio, particularly in what it deems Beer Adjacent Categories.
“We will further concentrate our efforts and investment on our global brands and expand our Beer Adjacent Categories (BAC) — including non-alcohol adult beverages, RTDs, and adult soft drinks — by delivering value propositions tailored to consumer needs in each market,” Katsuki added.
By Asahi’s definition, non-alcohol adult beverages generally carry a ‘beer taste’, namely zero-alcohol beers such as Asahi Zero; RTDs are ready-to-drink lower alcohol options like seltzers or ciders; and adult soft drinks are essentially zero-alcohol RTDs.
“The BAC market is expected to continue delivering stable volume growth, supported by increasingly diverse drinking occasions and deeper category penetration. We expect higher value growth and improved profitability through continued premiumisation, particularly in developed economies,” Asahi stated in formal financial documents.
“RTDs in particular have seen significant market expansion since the 2010s, and an especially strong growth in CAGR of 7% to 8% since 2015 in particular.”
From 2010 to 2025, the overall BAC category has already seen a +4.8% CAGR growth, hence it is unsurprising that Asahi is choosing to wager its bets on this segment.
“Expansion initiatives are planned across our global markets: In East Asia, this is a stable segment so we will promote it alongside smart drinking campaigns; in Europe we will be expanding the non-alcohol adult drinks (beer taste) especially in markets where these already have leading market share such as Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania,” the firm added.
“As for the Asia Pacific market, the main focus will be on RTDs and enhancing the value of our propositions in this category, as this already holds the number one market share in markets such as Australia.”
East Africa: A new world of opportunity
In addition to the beverage business, Asahi is also laying its bets on growth in the developing market of East Africa, where it has confirmed a purchase assets in this region from Diageo that is expected to be completed by mid-2026.
“In the second half of this year, we expect to complete the acquisition of Diageo plc’s East African business. By bringing together the strengths of both businesses, including their brands and talent, we aim to further enhance our corporate value,” Katsuki said.
“[This would mean the acquisition of] a strong platform in the East African market, which is expected to deliver long-term growth driven by population increases and economic expansion.”
The agreement would see Asahi make a complete 100% acquisition of Diageo Kenya as well as 65% of East African Breweries PLC, the company that oversees Diageo’s beer, spirits and RTD businesses in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
This would also give the firm immediate ownership of 10 manufacturing sites, including one microbrewery in Kenya. At present, the value of this transaction is estimated at US$3bn and the transaction is tentatively set for completion in H2FY2026.
“Despite the impact of COVID-19 and cost inflation, EABL has maintained strong profitability driven by top-line growth,” Asahi stated.
“We also see that there is strong consumer demand in this market, [and EABL has maintained] a rich product portfolio to support a steady growth in net sales. Asahi aims to achieve 20% in core operating profit margins by 2030 [and one of the strategies is to] strengthen our global growth platforms, which will include our East Africa business.”
