April 6 - Efes Breweries International N.V. has announced its consolidated audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2008 in accordance with IFRS.
"We are pleased to report another year of strong top line growth” commented Mr. Alejandro Jimenez, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of EBI. “ 2008 has been the start of what we can call a “once in a life time” global economic crisis. The inflationary pressures in our operating markets, combined with the significantly deteriorated consumer confidence in the second half of the year impacted the sales volume performance of our markets.
"We are very pleased to report to you today that we have outgrown all of our operating markets and increased our market share in each of them. In 2008 we continued to put special emphasis on our brand innovations and effective marketing strategies and we are happy to see that our strategic brands have gained market share in their respective segments. In 2008, one of the key challanges in the brewing industry has been the increased cost of raw materials. This had a negative impact on our profitability in 2008, in line with our guidance, yet at a lower rate for the full year compared to previous quarters.
"We believe that our business is robust, but this doesn’t mean we are not increasing our defense strategies against the challenges being post by the negative macroeconomic developments. In 2009 we are very focused on working capital management, we are cutting our capital expenditures to almost half of the previous year and most importantly we are 100% committed to cost reduction. We are confident that we will complete the challenging year ahead with a solid operating performance.”
2009 OUTLOOK
• Due to the global macroeconomic challenges we are adopting a more conservative outlook for the markets we are operating in. We expect Russian beer market to be down by ca. 2% in 2009 over 2008. We are committed to outperform the market in 2009 and our confidence is based on our histrocial performance.
• Similarly in other operating countries we expect to outgrow the beer markets.
• In 2009 we will keep our price increases below inflation, yet deliver local currency net revenue growth. However, on a consolidated basis, consolidated net sales revenue is expected to decrease at a rate of low to mid teens y‐o‐y due to the impact of weaker local currencies vs. USD.
• We expect to save back at least half of the gross margin we have lost in 2008 and we are basing this outlook on lower procurement prices of raw materials.
• In 2009 we are keeping our capital expenditures to a minimum level of approximately 6% of revenues.
• In 2009 one of our primary focus areas will be increasing cash flow by improved profitability, reduced debt, lower capex and tighter working capital management.