Carlsberg A/S chief executive officer, Nils Andersen, revealed on Wednesday July 4, 2007 that sales and profits in Malaysia were not up to standard, and so the Danish brewery will fight to improve its market share by increasing the number of distributors.
“We are improving the way we deal with distributors. We want to be closer to our customers,” said Andersen.
For the first quarter ended March 31, Carlsberg Malaysia‘s net profit dropped 67% to RM10.6mil on revenue of RM252.9mil. That compares with RM32.2mil and RM263.6mil respectively in the same period last year.
The lower earnings were also caused by rising marketing expenses and the restructuring of the company’s management team.
Following three consecutive tax increase, Malaysia now has the second highest duty on beer after Norway, causing the beer prices to increase by 30% in less than two years. Andersen said he expected the local beer market to perform well if there was no tax increase this year.
