According to Jacob Aarup-Andersen, Carlsberg‘s new CEO, further price increases are necessary to cope with increased production costs. However, those increases will be less steep than in recent years.
Controversial
As production costs continue to rise, more price increases will be necessary, said Aarup-Andersen in an interview with news agency Bloomberg. He added, however, that the pace of those price increases will be slower than in the past two years.
Still, the statement is controversial: now that many commodity prices are falling again and energy prices have stabilised, retailers and consumer groups are demanding that supermarket selling prices fall again. However, big brand manufacturers are reluctant to comply. This is currently leading to fierce price discussions in the sector, where annual talks are ongoing. At Belgian Colruyt for example, products from AB InBev, Unilever and Mars recently disappeared from the shelves as leverage for the negotiations.
Besides the eponymous beer, Carlsberg also produces beers like Kronenbourg 1664, Tuborg and Grimbergen. The brewing group recently lost its Russian operations, which were nationalised by the Putin government. The new CEO wants to increase investments, bet on growing markets such as China, Vietnam and India, and expand the non-alcoholic beer offer.
