Heineken Holding

Hello everybody and welcome to the Heineken NV Q3 2026 trading update. My name is Elliot and I'll be coordinating your calls today. If you would like to ask a question during today's event, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand over to Tristan Van Strien, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Elliot. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone, from a bright and crisp Amsterdam today. Thank you for joining us for today's live webcast on our third quarter 2026 trading update. Your host will be our Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Board, Harold van den Broek. Following the presentation, we will be happy to take your questions. The presentation includes expectations based on management's current views and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and it is possible that the actual results may differ materially. For more information, please refer to the disclaimer on the first page of this presentation, which should be on your screen. I will now turn over the call to Harold.

Thank you, Tristan, and a very good day to you all. What a great picture to start with. I'm pleased that Rafa joined us as CEO on October the 1st and is engaging fully with Heineken as you can see. As you would expect, he'll be listening, learning and reflecting over the next few months and will share more of his perspective when we report our full year results in February. So I'm happy to host you for this quarter three trading update. Let me start with the highlights of the quarter. We delivered volume and revenue growth across all four regions, driven by priority markets, segments and our global brands. Africa and Middle East delivered another quarter of resilient growth, while Asia-Pacific continued its momentum. Europe continued with a return to volume growth, while the Americas returned to volume growth this quarter, both admittedly on softer comparatives. We also execute at pace on our evergreen 2030 priorities with accelerating innovation, stronger commercial execution and simplification of our operating model. Against the broadly unchanged trading environment, we confirm our full-year operating profit growth guidance on operating profit growth of between 2 and 6%. Turning to the key metrics. In the third quarter, total volume grew 4.8% and net revenue increased 4.6%. Net revenue per hectolitre was up 0.7% and I will expand on this later. Our premium and global brands portfolio grew double digit. For the first nine months, total volume increased 2.7% and net revenue grew 3.4%. Net revenue per hectolitre was up 1.7% and year-to-date premium volume in global brands grew circa 8 and 7% respectively. Overall, we consider this to be a solid quarter. Let us now look at the net revenue in a little bit more detail. Net revenue for the quarter increased organically by 4.6% to 8.1 billion euros. The organic increase was €366 million, with €286 million from consolidated volume and €50 million from price mix. Just for reference, and you know this is not how we report, but licensed volume growth would add about 20 to 30 basis points revenue for the quarter and 60-70 basis points for the year to date. Turning to our pricing, where we consciously invest for the value-seeking consumer in selected markets and segments. This is partly why you see a lower contribution in the bar on this slide, as our net revenue per hectolitre grew 0.7%, as previously mentioned. An important other factor is the negative country mix, particularly driven by the strong growth in Asia Pacific, such as Vietnam and India, where revenue per hectolitre is below the group average. On a constant geographic basis, price mix was 1.8%, and that's a more accurate reference of our price mix delivery market by market. Consolidation changes, particularly the integration of Costa Rica, added 182 million, and currency translation contributed 241 million, mostly due to a stronger Mexican peso, Brazilian real, Nigerian naira, and South African rand. Moving to the composition and quality of our growth. Our mainstream portfolio grew in the quarter, with our local power brands outperforming the segment, led by Cruz Campo in the UK, Bedele and Harar in Ethiopia, and Kingfisher in India. Heineken had another strong quarter, with double digit growth in 22 markets. Heineken's ultimate 3.5% built further momentum in Brazil, Broadening the brand's proposition with a lower alcohol, lower calorie and gluten-free beer. Heineken 00 grew strongly with double-digit growth in 26 markets with encouraging contribution from recent flavor extensions. More broadly, we recorded double-digit growth in low and no alcohol with innovative launches across the portfolio and strong performance from Fairuz in Egypt and Solzero in Brazil. Beyond Beer Volume grew in the teens, driven by Bernini in South Africa and Cider in the UK. If I can spend a word on global brands, which are Heineken, Amstel, Beer Amoretti, Tiger and Desperados. All five brands grew in the quarter and in aggregate were up circa 10%. Heineken grew around 10% with particularly strong momentum from Heineken Silver in Vietnam and China, while in Brazil the brand returned to double-digit growth. Tiger grew more than 20%, supported by Tiger Crystal and strong execution across Asia. Amstel grew by a high single digit, led by Brazil, China and South Africa, and we extended our partnership with Conmebol Libertadores, leveraging the passion for football across Latin America to further build the brand. Berra Moretti and Desperados also delivered volume growth. If I now move to the regions and starting with Africa and Middle East. The region delivered another strong quarter of resilient growth led by Ethiopia and South Africa. Net revenue increased 6.8%, total volume grew 4.3%, and price mix on a constant geographic basis was up 3.6%. In Nigeria, macro circumstances continue to weigh on the consumer, leading to subdued market conditions for our portfolio. Against this backdrop, we gained share and slowly we are seeing some gradual improvement in the economic environment. Within premium, Heineken and Desperados continue to perform well. South Africa continued to benefit from the strength of our multi-category portfolio. Our beer brands Heineken, Amstel and Windhoek all grew in the quarter. Bernini remained strong in RGDs, ready to drinks, and Clipdrift performed well in spirits. Ethiopia again was a strong performer, with strong double-digit revenue and volume growth, further building our leadership position. Bedele, Harrar and Heineken all contributed to this performance. Our business remains vigilant, considering the threat of tensions in the north of the country. And if we now move to the Americas, as anticipated, this region returned to volume and revenue growth in the quarter, admittedly on softer comparatives. Net revenue increased by 3.1%, and total volume grew 2.1%, with price mix at plus 2.2%. In Mexico, the beer category returned to growth. Our volume and net revenue grew modestly, and our market share trajectory is progressively improving. An important contributor to our performance was stronger outlet execution, notably in our own six-net work and with our traditional trade partners. Premium beer grew strongly, led by Miller Highlife, while Tecate Original and Indio contributed to mainstream growth. In Brazil, the beer category recovered to positive growth in the quarter and our volume increased by mid-single digit, with Heineken and Amstel both growing double digit. The recent Heineken Ultimate 3.5% innovation is resonating strongly with consumers, exceeding volume expectations. Also, Heineken 00 grew in the high 20s. Overall, net revenue in Brazil grew in the teens. In Central America, the FIFCO integration remains on track, including delivery of expected synergies. In Costa Rica, our multi-category portfolio continued to perform well, supported by strong commercial execution across the entire portfolio. All in all, an improved quarter for the Americas, with more work to do. If I now turn to Asia-Pacific, which continued its solid momentum we saw in the first half year. Net revenue increased 15.1%, with total volume growing 17.3% and price mix on a constant geographic basis up 4.1%. Vietnam is strongly outperforming the beer category, growing mid-single digits. Our volume grew in the 20s, with net revenue up in the 30s, supported by share gains and continued growth in the premium segment. Heineken Silver and Tiger Crystal were the key leaders of the growth. India continued to build on its leadership position in a high-growth beer market, partially benefiting from an easier comparable following last year's heavy monsoon season. We are leveraging our scale and national footprint to capture underlying consumer demand and drive category growth. Kingfisher Ultra and Heineken Silver led the premium growth. We are also encouraged by recent regulatory developments, that's a tongue twister, including more equitable excise treatment of beer in certain states. The country's first ever alcohol content-based tax system was implemented in Karnataka, boosting demand. And as a beer industry, we continue to engage with the state governments on reforms that support the responsible long-term development of the category. In China, we delivered another quarter of sustainable double-digit growth and share gains. Heineken Original and Heineken Silver and also now Amstel show growth across geographies and channels. On the picture to the right, you see an example of the Heineken brand activation of the Shanghai Tennis Masters on the Bund, a real great site. Turning to Europe, the region delivered another quarter of volume growth against somewhat softer comparatives engaging with consumers through excellent summer activation and stepped up innovation. Net revenue increased 1.3%, total volume grew 0.6% and price mix was 0.1%. The latter held back both by negative channel mix in the quarter and intentionally restrained price mix as we continue to focus on affordability for value-seeking consumers. In the United Kingdom, volume grew on the back of our portfolio strength with Cruzcampo, Premium Cider and Murphy Stout as key drivers. Our pub platform also remains an important strength. StarPubs continue to outperform the wider pub market, reflecting the consumer appeal of quality pubs and the strength of our StarPubs operating model. Across Western Europe, excellent summer activations supported market share gains in the off-trade. We also continue to expand our participation in Beyond Beer, for instance with the acquisition, still subject to regulatory approval, of a majority shareholding in Stels, a leading and fast-growing RTD brand in the Netherlands. Earlier this month, we also announced a significant simplification of our European business. Following the successful pilot, we are moving from 23 operating companies to eight larger multi-market operating companies by year-end, combining local consumer and customer proximity with skill capability and productivity benefits. Finally, our outlook for 2026. The trading environment remains broadly unchanged and we continue to operate against the backdrop of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. Our short third quarter performance with volume growth across all regions and further proof points of acceleration of our strategy gives us confidence in our full year delivery. We therefore reconfirm our guidance of 2 to 6% operating profit growth. Our outlook for all other metrics remain unchanged. So let me briefly summarize. We welcome Rafa as the new CEO, but he will be touring the world We delivered a solid quarter with volume up 4.8% and net revenue up 4.6%. Growth was broad-based across all four regions and led by our priority segments and global brands. Premium volume grew double-digit, while our global brands grew around 10%. Africa and the Middle East delivered resilient growth and Asia-Pacific continued its strong momentum. America's Return to Growth and Europe Delivered Volume Growth, both, however, on softer comparators. And as Rafa said, we have strong foundations and this quarter shows that. Yet, there is more to do. With that, thank you for listening and we'll be happy to take your questions.