Carlsberg maintains full-year outlook, warns of volatile consumer sentiment

COPENHAGEN/LONDON (Reuters) -Danish brewer Carlsberg on Tuesday reported first-quarter sales slightly below expectations and kept its outlook for the full year unchanged despite warning of volatile consumer sentiment.

"It was a soft start to the year," CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said in a statement, referring to the consumer and economic backdrop.

Carlsberg, the world's third largest brewer behind Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken, still expects between 1% and 5% growth in organic operating profit for the current year.

"We have not seen any material changes in consumer behaviour in our markets during Q1, but the global macroeconomic environment and consumer sentiment are volatile and uncertain," Carlsberg said.

Carlsberg said in a trading statement that sales between January and March rose 17% from last year to 20.12 billion Danish crowns ($3.07 billion), compared with 20.4 billion forecast by analysts in a poll gathered by the company.

The rise in sales was positively impacted by its acquisition last year of British soft drinks maker Britvic.

The company did not provide any profit numbers for the first quarter.

($1 = 6.5565 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Emma Rumney, Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)