United Breweries Q1 Profit Drops 9.6% to Rs 166.3cr

New Delhi: Beer maker United Breweries Ltd on Tuesday reported a 9.64 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 166.28 crore in the June quarter of FY’27 due to higher expenses and West Asia conflict hitting its margins.

The company, controlled by Dutch multinational brewing company Heineken NV, had posted a net profit of Rs 184.03 crore in the April-June quarter a year ago, United Breweries Ltd (UBL) said in a regulatory filing.

However, UBL’s revenue from operations was up 10 per cent to Rs 5,919.44 crore in the June quarter of FY27. It was at Rs 5,380.78 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

The growth was led by the beer category, which continued double-digit growth, said UBL in its earnings statement.

“UBL sell-in volumes were up 9%, and sell-out volumes were up 13% in Q1 FY27, while deliberately reducing inventory levels (-20%) to improve cash flow,” it said.

Its net sales grew over 7 per cent, driven by volume growth, price increases and favourable geographic mix whilst being partially offset by sourcing mix.

“Premium volumes increased 17 per cent, excluding two states where the company took deliberate actions to mitigate the war impact. Total premium volumes all India grew +7 per cent with Heineken Silver growing +28 per cent and Kingfisher Ultra +11 per cent,” it said.

Efforts over the past two years to localise production and improve execution have resulted in premium margins turning accretive for the first time despite a -300bps “impact on GP margin due to the Middle East war,” it said.

Total expenses of UBLs were at Rs 5,745.66 crore, up 11.7 per cent in the June quarter of FY’27.

Its total income, which includes other income, in the June quarter was also up 10.7 per cent to Rs 5,970.15 crore.

Over the outlook, CEO & MD Vivek Gupta said: “We expect inflationary pressures on our cost base to persist over the coming quarters amid an uncertain macroeconomic environment.” “As such, we remain focused on disciplined pricing, rigorous cost management and driving productivity to protect margins while continuing to invest in the longterm growth of the business,” he said.

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