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- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Rafael Nadal calls time on epic tennis career
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines confronts China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Kim Sei-young shoots 62 to take two-stroke lead at LPGA Shanghai
- The haircuts that help traumatised Ukrainian soldiers heal
- Sinner crushes Medvedev to set up potential Alcaraz Shanghai semi
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- England's Harry Brook blasts triple century against Pakistan
- Chinese electric car companies cope with European tariffs
- Zelensky in London for whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Record-breaking Root, Brook both pass 200 as England pile up 658-3
- Football mourns Greek defender George Baldock's shock death at 31
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
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- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Home is far away for Madagascar in AFCON qualifying
- Two months on, Donbas soldiers begin to question Kursk offensive
- Rugby Australia to counter-sue in dispute with Melbourne Rebels
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
- Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
Bitter year for Heineken as inflation hits profits, beer sales
Dutch brewer Heineken on Wednesday reported a drop in annual profits as beer volumes declined in "challenging market conditions" including high inflation.
The world's second-biggest brewer after AB InBev said its net profits in 2023 came in at 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion), compared to the 2.7 billion euros of profit it made the year before.
Beer volume overall dipped by 4.7 percent, with 60 percent of that decline driven by sharp falls in Nigeria and Vietnam, the firm said.
"This year, Heineken had to prioritise pricing to offset unprecedented levels of commodity and energy inflation," the brewer noted.
This inflationary pressure tailed off towards the second half of the year, it said, but predicted that the economic climate would "remain a factor of uncertainty" into 2024.
Higher prices did push up the overall sales figures to 36.3 billion euros, a gain on the previous year's 35 billion.
It forecast future operating profits to be in the "low- to high-single-digit" range, with net profits lower than that due to currency and tax impacts.
Heineken's half-year report published in July had already given investors a taste of the gloom to come, with net profit slumping 8.6 percent as the firm hiked prices.
In March, Heineken was forced to apologise over "ambiguity" in its pledge to stop business in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
A Dutch investigative website reported in February that although Heineken had stopped selling its namesake beer in Russia, it had launched dozens of new products.
In August, the firm announced the full pull-out from Russia, selling its operations to the Arnest Group, the largest Russian manufacturer of cosmetics, household goods, and metal packaging.
In its home market of the Netherlands, the Dutch brewery association said that beer sales overall fell by more than five percent in 2023 due to poor summer weather and inflation.
For the first time since 2001, there was a drop in the number of breweries operating in the Netherlands, the group said, "as it is becoming less profitable to brew beer."
O.M.Souza--AMWN