Carlsberg’s growing sales in Asia has contributed to the Danish beer giant’s global sales increase, according to the company’s newly published sales figures for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
Revenue from Asian operations grew no less than 28 pct to 514 million DKK with higher sales in China and acquisitions in places like Cambodia and western China. Organic growth in Asia and at Carlsberg’s Russian business, Baltic Beverage Holding, has led Carlsberg to expect further sales growth in 2006, Danish media reports.
Carlsberg’s plans to shut down operations in Europe – including the site in Valby, Copenhagen, where Carlsberg began brewing – are expected to lead to restructuring costs of 100 million DKK. However the Danish brewery group also hopes that sales will increase in their key markets during the upcoming FIFA World Cup this summer – as fans will not only be flocking to the host nation of Germany but will also be gathering en mass in pubs and near big screens in football-hungry countries like Thailand and Singapore along with other southeast Asian countries that host many western expats and tourists.
