Carlsberg had to admit on Wednesday that the world third largest brewer did not perform as forecasted. Especially the Russian market was again a nightmare for the Danish brewer. The reported net profit in 2017 went down to DKK 1,259m (€ 169m) from DKK 4,486m(€603m) the year before. Main reason was an impairment of the Baltika brand of DKK 4.8bn(€ 0.65bn).
Cees 't Hart, CEO of Carlsberg tried to gloss over the disaster on Wednesday as "just a book keeping exercise with regards to the value of the brand." "We had to take a write-off, but that's basically from the brand Baltika," he said.
Carlsberg’s Russian business saw a drop in sales of 14 percent mainly impacted by the PET downsizing in Russia (inside.beer, 18.2.2017), which also influenced total sales, which were €112 million or 4 percent down from 2016. Total volumes sales were down organically by 2%,
"We think in three angles" Cees 't Hart explained further: "margins, volume and profit. We have two hits out of three … And our competitors have one out of three because they have the volume and not the margins, not the profit." And he ended in saying: "Do you want to shift beer, or do you want to earn money as well?"
