Heineken beats quarterly sales forecasts, keeps profit outlook

LONDON (Reuters) -Heineken reported forecast-beating first-quarter sales on Wednesday and maintained its annual guidance but warned of ongoing volatility caused by uncertainty about the levels and scope of global tariffs.

The world's second-largest brewer by global volumes had already flagged a tough start to 2025 after it cheered investors with its 2024 performance in February. This year's first quarter had fewer trading days given 2024 was a leap year and because of the unfavourable timing of large events like Easter. 

Heineken said this drove an anticipated 2.1% decline in beer volumes, but it sold more of its pricier labels like namesake brand Heineken, helping to offset this dip to lift organic net revenues by 0.9%. 

Analysts had expected a 2.9% decline in beer volumes and 0.6% drop in organic net revenues.

"Despite volatile consumer and geopolitical trends, we are performing within the range of expectations," CEO Dolf van den Brink said in a statement. 

The brewer did, however, warn of additional risks that may hurt consumer spending and said it was working to advance productivity initiatives to protect its performance. 

Those risks included "tariff adjustments and potential increases" as well as weak consumer sentiment, inflation and weakening of currencies against a stronger euro, in which the group reports its results. 

Heineken still expects between 4% and 8% profit growth in 2025 despite an escalation in global trade tensions sparked by the current U.S. administration.

Since Heineken set its forecast in February, further U.S. tariff announcements, including some targeting beer in cans, have shocked markets, hurting consumer confidence, though a sweeping tariff regime has since been largely paused. 

(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Jan Harvey and Tomasz Janowski)