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Brussels - Cool weather in Europe and the United States depressed lager sales at SABMiller [JSE:SAB], the world's second-largest beermaker, in the April-June period, sending its share down 4%.
The company, which derives two-thirds of its sales from emerging markets, said lager volumes declined by 1% versus market expectations for a 2% increase, although revenues rose 2% on a like-for-like basis.
"Clearly, poor weather has had a major impact on the quarter and is set to be a theme for the other European beverage names as we enter the reporting season," said Jefferies analyst Dirk Van Vlaanderen in a note.
Chief Executive Alan Clark said while first quarter revenue growth was held back by the weather this was offset by continued growth in Latin America and Africa.
The maker of the Miller brands, Grolsch and Peroni Nastro Azzurro said lager volumes grew 2 percent in Latin America and rose by 8% in Africa outside South Africa.
In Europe, where there was flooding in eastern countries, sales volumes dropped 7%, while in the United States its MillerCoors venture with MolsonCoors suffered a 4.4% drop in sales to retailers.
The Asia-Pacific region was also muted, but principally due to the loss of brands it had been brewing under licence, such as Corona and Carlsberg. The loss followed SABMiller's 2011 purchase of Foster's.
SABMiller said that if these discontinued Australian brands had been excluded, then overall group volumes would have been flat and revenue per hectolitre would have risen by 3% rather than the 2% reported.
