Carlsberg Trebles Profits

Danish Brewer Carlsberg has produced strong interim figures showing that an increase in beer sales in early summer helped to treble profits to DKK314m (€42.12m).

However, Western Europe has been lagging behind the Asian and Eastern European markets. The brewer reported that Nordic markets have also remained difficult. Group net revenues for the H1 2005 were up 4.5% on the same period last year at DKK17.8bn, figures slightly lower than market expectations. At the same time operating earnings dropped 13% to DKK1.3bn, a figure slightly above market forecasts. Carlsberg’s full-year earnings forecast remains unchanged at a 15% net profit increase from last year’s DKK1.1bn.