Danes boycotting US products like Coca-Cola, Carlsberg says

LONDON (Reuters) -Danish consumers are boycotting Coca-Cola, Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said on Tuesday, adding the brewer, which bottles the drink in Denmark, had seen Coca-Cola volumes decline while local rivals gain share.

The beermaker, which also sells Kronenbourg beer and soft drinks like Tuborg Soda, said its Coke volumes in Denmark were "slightly down" and that there is "a level of consumer boycott around U.S. brands".

Consumers have ditched brands like Tesla, products like U.S. whiskey and U.S. travel plans in protest over U.S. tariffs, foreign policy or Elon Musk's political activities.

In Denmark, some local brands were gaining share at the expense of U.S. labels like Coke, Aarup-Andersen told investors on its first quarter earnings call.

Coke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company is feeling the effects of a boycott of its brands from Hispanic consumers in the U.S. over video purportedly showing the company laying off its Latino staff and reporting them to immigration authorities, which Coke says is false.

CEO James Quincey said it was focused on recovering from that boycott, which hit its business in the southern U.S. especially. Coke did not reference the boycott in Denmark during an earnings call with analysts on Tuesday.

Danish alternatives to Coke include local label Jolly Cola. But Aarup-Andersen said both Coke and Pepsi, which Carlsberg also bottles, sold in Denmark were produced at Danish breweries by Danish workers.

"So these are very much, from our perspective, Danish brands," he said, adding Carlsberg was not pro or contra boycotts and respected people's decisions.

Carlsberg's overall soft drink portfolio in Denmark was up, and the hit to Coke was "not dramatic" in terms of overall volumes, Aarup-Andersen continued.

The brewer warned on Tuesday that U.S. tariffs could affect both consumer spending and raw material costs going forward.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney in London and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; Additional reporting by Jessica Di'Napoli in New York and Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)