NEW DELHI: United Breweries has a strong plan on premium both in terms of innovation and supply. Vivek Gupta, MD and CEO of UBL in a recent earnings conference call said the company plans to expand its innovation like Heineken Silver innovation, Heineken Draught innovation, and some of the other innovations that are in the pipeline.
The Kingfisher beer maker in Q3 reported consolidated net profit at Rs 85.34 crore and its gross margin for the quarter was 44%.“Our premium volume continues to be strong. It showed a 14% surge. We saw double-digit growth and strong double-digit growth in some of our key premium brands like Ultra Max. We had a bit of supply challenges for Heineken in Karnataka. But despite that, we were able to deliver good growth, and we estimate our shares to be sequentially up for the December quarter, even on premium,” Gupta said.
Its Q3FY24 volumes were up 8%, mainly driven by South and East regions partially offset by North. The premium segment grew by 14% in the quarter. Investments in capex during the first nine months of the year were Rs 134 crore, mainly in supply chain initiatives to cater for future growth. The company said despite some inflationary softening as seen from Q2FY24, volatility will remain. It is optimistic about the long-term growth potential of the industry, driven by rising disposable income, favourable demographics and premiumisation.
UBL’s volume growth was broad based. “East grew 22% for us, driven by strong growth in Odisha and Jharkhand. South, the big markets of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, AP, Kerala, grew 10% for us. West grew 9% for us and North, we had a decline because primarily led by Delhi,” Gupta added.