Q1 2021 Trading Statement

Company Announcement No 21/2020 – 28 April 2021

Q1 2021 Trading Statement

Q1 2021 Strong start in Off-Trade

Statement by Royal Unibrew’s CEO Lars Jensen:

“We are off to a solid start to the year with strong execution in the Off-Trade business, especially in Denmark and Italy. We are once again delivering record high volumes, net revenue and EBIT driven by an Off-Trade business where all key markets have outperformed last year. The organization has exploited the opportunities that the markets have offered, and we have continued to win market shares across most markets and categories. Our On-Trade and Border businesses have been negatively affected by the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic throughout the quarter, and in March our On-Trade business was down by more than 60% compared to 2019. Under these difficult circumstances our teams’ execution has been extraordinary. The results are positively impacted by sell-in to Easter, which was in March this year compared to April last year.

Strong performance in Denmark is driven by strong growth in CSD and energy drinks, including strong growth in our Faxe Kondi brand, which celebrates its 50 years anniversary this year. In Italy we have seen significant growth in our beer business and late in the quarter, we launched an energy drink, LemonSoda Energy Activator, which comes in three fruit-based flavors. In Finland, our craft beer brand Lahden Erikois grew by double-digit percentages in Q1 21 thereby supporting the price/mix development in the region. The new alcohol-free Original Long Drink version helped to drive earnings growth and profitability in the quarter, and also further improved the brand’s market leading position. Volume growth in Africa and Asia in brands like Faxe, Tempt, Power Malt and Crodo was the main driver behind the strong results in International.”

Financial highlights Q1-2021
We have reassessed the IFRS 15 accounting policy concerning customer contracts and, on that background, we have changed our treatment of some customer contract-related costs. This means that some sales costs are reclassified to rebates, and as a consequence revenue and sales costs are reduced by the same amount, whereas EBIT is unchanged. As a consequence, all figures in this Trading Statement therefore refers to restated figures, unless otherwise stated.