Carlsberg names Dutchman as new CEO

STOCKHOLM: Carlsberg A/S yesterday named Cees ’t Hart as its new chief executive officer, ending Joergen Buhl Rasmussen’s seven-year leadership of the world’s fourthbiggest brewer.

“Dutchman ’t Hart, 56, joins from dairy company Royal Friesland-Campina NV, where he has been CEO since the end of 2008,’’ Carlsberg said in a statement.

The first non-Dane to be Carlsberg CEO since its founding in 1847, ’t Hart worked at Unilever for 25 years prior to his current job.

The new chief will need to guide the brewer through tough conditions when he starts on June 15.

“Currency devaluation in Russia and Ukraine will put significant pressure on performance this year,’’ Carlsberg said yesterday, as it reported fourthquarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.

“It’s a surprising time for a handover of leadership,’’ Michael Friis, an analyst at Alm Brand, said. “For me, it signals a little bit of a change.” Discussions on the leadership of the company have been taking place since the autumn, a spokesman for Copenhagenbased Carlsberg said by e-mail.

“Both Buhl Rasmussen and the board agree that it’s the right time for him to hand over control,’’ he said.

Buhl Rasmussen joined Carlsberg from Gillette Co in 2007 as head of its business in Eastern Europe and was promoted to CEO later that year. The latter stages of his leadership have seen the company having to contend with a weakening rouble and political turmoil in Russia, dealing a blow to Carlsberg as the country’s biggest brewer through its ownership of Baltika.

The maker of Kronenbourg 1664 expects to deliver “mid- to high-single-digit” organic operating profit growth in 2015. Organic measures exclude the effects of currencies and acquisitions.

Carlsberg predicts that beer markets in western Europe will be little changed this year, while those in Eastern Europe will decline due to the region’s slumping economy and accelerating inflation in Russia and Ukraine. Asian markets are expected to continue to grow.

“Clearly, the Eastern European business is working on different scenarios and plans that can be executed if the environment changes,” the brewer said in a statement.

Group beer volumes declined organically by 3% in 2014, the maker of Tuborg beer said.

Fourth-quarter earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items fell 22% to 1.79 billion kroner ($275 million). The average of nine analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for 1.86 billion kroner.