Heineken yet to see any impact from Covid-19 outbreak
PETALING JAYA: Heineken Malaysia Bhd has yet to see any impact from the Covid19 outbreak, but it expects the business outlook to remain challenging, according to managing director Roland Bala.
“Right now it is still too early to assess the impact of the outbreak, but we are still looking out and remain cautious of the impact,” he told the media at the group’s FY19 financial results briefing last Friday.
He said uncertainties in economic conditions, continuous competitive pressures and contraband beer in the market will weigh on the group’s business operation.
However, on a positive note, the group’s ecommerce platform has been performing well since its introduction end-2018.
“This year, we are looking to expand the initiative further to other major cities in Malaysia and we are currently beefing up the logistics do so,” Roland said, without elaborating further.
As for the upcoming price increases for selected products on March 1, he stressed that it will only affect its keg format, for which prices will increase between 4% and 6%.
“The price increase is an inevitable part as cost of doing business such as salary and raw material price increase, nonetheless we are to lessen the impact to our consumers, hence it will only affect our keg format,” he said.
Heineken recorded a net profit of RM312.97 million for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019, a 10.8% improvement from RM282.52 million reported for its previous financial year.
Revenue for the year stood at RM2.32 billion, a 14.3% increase from RM2.03 billion registered previously, driven by robust sales performance across all core brands and new product launches.
For the year, the group has declared a final dividend of 66 sen per share, which brings the total dividend payout for FY19 to RM1.08 a share.
Moving forward, Heineken said it will continue to pursue sustainable growth by sharpening its commercial execution and driving effective cost management across the organisation.