Heineken N.V. reports 2020 full year results and shares updates on "EverGreen" strategic review
Heineken N.V. reported a challenging 2020, impacted by COVID-19, with net revenue (beia) declining 11.9% and a consolidated beer volume drop of 8.1%. Operating profit (beia) fell 35.6%, driving a net profit (beia) of €1,154 million, down 49.4% from 2019. Despite these challenges, the Heineken® brand showed resilience, particularly in Brazil. The company announced a strategic review, EverGreen, aiming for profitable growth and increased productivity with a target of €2 billion in savings by 2023. The proposed dividend of €0.70 per share reflects a 58.3% decrease compared to 2019.
- Resilience of Heineken® brand, especially strong performance in Brazil.
- Introduction of EverGreen strategic review aimed at profitable growth.
- Successful cost mitigation actions leading to €800 million organic expense reduction.
- Strong e-commerce performance with nearly doubled revenues on platforms like Beerwulf.
- Net revenue (beia) decreased by 11.9% due to COVID-19 impact.
- Operating profit (beia) fell by 35.6%, with all regions in decline.
- Net profit (beia) decreased by 49.4%, significantly impacting future dividends.
- Consolidated beer volume declined by 8.1%, indicating market challenges.
Amsterdam, 10 February 2021 – Heineken N.V. (EURONEXT: HEIA; OTCQX: HEINY) announces:
2020 full year results highlights:
- Net revenue (beia) organic growth -
11.9% ; per hectolitre -2.4% - Consolidated beer volume -
8.1% organically - Heineken® volume resilient -
0.4% - Operating profit (beia) organic growth -
35.6% , margin12.3% (-455 bps) - Net profit (beia)
€1,154 million , -49.4% organically - Diluted EPS (beia)
€2.00 (2019:€4.38)
EverGreen strategic review update:
- Deliver superior and profitable growth in a fast-changing world
- Placing consumers and customers at the core, enhance our portfolio and
strengthen our digital route to consumer - Raise the bar on sustainability and on our people agenda
- Step up in productivity starting with
€2 billion gross savings through 2023
to fund our journey - Restore operating profit margin (beia) to around
17% by 2023 and gear
for operating leverage beyond
CEO STATEMENT
Dolf van den Brink, Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO, commented:
"In a year of unprecedented disruption and transition, our teams rose to the occasion and quickly adapted while not losing sight of the need to continue investing for the future. The impact of the pandemic on our business was amplified by our on-trade and geographic exposure. We took diligent cost mitigation actions balanced with continued investment behind our growth platforms. We gained share in most of our key operations, a testimony to our ability to adapt and stay close to our customers and consumers in these turbulent times. The Heineken® brand was a bright star, with a continued outstanding performance in Brazil. I applaud the dedication and resilience of our employees and their commitment to support each other, our customers and communities over the past year.
While navigating the crisis, we are building our future. EverGreen leverages both our strengths and new opportunities to chart our next chapter of growth. We aspire to deliver superior and profitable growth in a fast changing world. Firmly putting customers and consumers at the core we aim to continually enhance and expand our portfolio and footprint. We are stepping up our focus on continuous productivity improvements and raising our environmental and social sustainability ambitions. All of this gives us confidence that we will continue to deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders."
FINANCIAL SUMMARY1
| IFRS Measures | € million | Total growth | BEIA Measures | € million | Organic growth2 | |||||
| Revenue | 23,770 | -16.7 | % | Revenue (beia) | 23,770 | -11.3 | % | |||
| Net revenue | 19,715 | -17.7 | % | Net revenue (beia) | 19,724 | -11.9 | % | |||
| Operating profit | 778 | -78.6 | % | Operating profit (beia) | 2,421 | -35.6 | % | |||
| Operating profit (beia) margin (%) | 12.3 | % | ||||||||
| Net (loss) | (204) | -109.4 | % | Net profit (beia) | 1,154 | -49.4 | % | |||
| Diluted EPS (in €) | (0.36) | -109.5 | % | Diluted EPS (beia) (in €) | 2.00 | -54.3 | % | |||
| Free operating cash flow | 1,513 | |||||||||
| Net debt / EBITDA (beia)3 | 3.4x | |||||||||
1 Consolidated figures are used throughout this report, unless otherwise stated; please refer to the Glossary for an explanation of non-GAAP measures and other terms used throughout this report.
2 Organic growth shown, except for Diluted EPS (beia) which is total growth.
3 Includes acquisitions and excludes disposals on a 12 month pro-forma basis.
NAVIGATING THE CRISIS WHILE BUILDING THE FUTURE
From the onset of the pandemic, people's health and safety have been our highest priority. To support our employees in doing their jobs safely, we established robust COVID-19 preventive measures including working from home where possible, social distancing, strict personal hygiene and disinfection protocols, and providing adequate personal protective equipment.
We also supported our customers, suppliers and the communities most impacted by the pandemic. We assisted customers with advice, re-opening tools, stock returns and helped them set up online delivery. We supported them financially, for example, by waiving close to
We provided twenty-three million Euros worth of pandemic relief to support front-line medical workers in the communities where we operate, including drinking water, non-alcoholic beverages, hand sanitiser, and monetary contributions. These included a
Our people adapted quickly and took decisive actions to guarantee business continuity. We entered the crisis with a strong balance sheet and took immediate steps to strengthen our liquidity. We took action to swiftly reduce discretionary expenses and mitigate the impact on our business performance while protecting the future. Our commercial teams reallocated resources across channels and brands, increasing their focus on off-trade customers. We accelerated the deployment of our e-commerce platforms, capitalising on digitalisation trends as consumers and customers shopped online. Our supply chain teams demonstrated great agility to adapt to a radically different and volatile environment with excellent efficiency and minimum disruptions. As a result, we outperformed the market in most of our key markets.
In parallel, our colleagues in support functions adapted quickly to working from home, produced timely rolling-forecasts to inform decisions and managed eight, remotely supported, deployments of our standardised ERP platforms in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Finally, we continued to shape our business for growth, with our entry into Peru, the acquisition of Strongbow in Australia, and the restructuring of our Philippines' business.
TOP-LINE PERFORMANCE
COVID-19 continues to have a material impact on our top-line performance, affecting all geographies and markets as governments across the world took measures to mitigate the contagion including restricted population movement, social distancing, outlet closures and temporary lockdowns of production facilities.
Net revenue (beia) declined
The second half of the year benefited from a good summer with some easing of operating constraints including in the European on-trade. Net revenue (beia) decreased
Consolidated beer volume decreased
| Consolidated beer volume (in mhl) | 4Q20 | 4Q19 | Organic growth | FY20 | FY19 | Organic growth | ||||||
| Heineken N.V. | 56.2 | 61.1 | -7.9 | % | 221.6 | 241.4 | -8.1 | % | ||||
| Africa Middle East & Eastern Europe | 11.2 | 11.5 | -2.9 | % | 39.6 | 43.7 | -9.2 | % | ||||
| Americas | 22.5 | 23.3 | -3.5 | % | 79.1 | 85.6 | -7.5 | % | ||||
| Asia Pacific | 7.6 | 8.4 | -9.6 | % | 28.1 | 31.1 | -7.9 | % | ||||
| Europe | 14.8 | 17.8 | -16.3 | % | 74.8 | 81.0 | -8.2 | % | ||||
Heineken® volume declined marginally by
Heineken® 0.0 grew strong double-digits with growth in all regions and an outstanding performance in Brazil, Mexico, and the USA. Heineken® 0.0 is now rolled-out in 84 markets.
| Heineken® volume (in mhl) | 4Q20 | Organic growth | FY20 | Organic growth | ||||
| Total | 10.7 | -4.3 | % | 41.8 | -0.4 | % | ||
| Africa Middle East & Eastern Europe | 1.7 | -20.2 | % | 5.6 | -23.0 | % | ||
| Americas | 4.4 | 15.6 | % | 15.9 | 18.7 | % | ||
| Asia Pacific | 1.9 | -0.1 | % | 6.4 | 0.6 | % | ||
| Europe | 2.7 | -19.1 | % | 13.9 | -7.1 | % | ||
The international brand portfolio had a mixed performance across brands and markets. Desperados grew double-digits driven by France, Poland, the Netherlands and Ivory Coast. Birra Moretti grew slightly as strong growth in the UK and Romania more than offset the decrease in Italy. Tiger volume was soft in Vietnam, outperforming the total market, and the brand grew strongly in Nigeria and South Korea. Amstel declined driven by Europe and South Africa despite double-digit growth in Brazil and Mexico. Sol declined driven by Mexico but grew double-digits
in the UK, Chile and Argentina. Edelweiss declined in Europe but showed strong growth in South Korea.
Cider volume declined in the high-teens to 4.6 million hectolitres (2019: 5.6 million), due to pub closures in the UK and alcohol sales restrictions in South Africa. Strongbow grew double-digits in Mexico and Russia.
Low & No-Alcohol (LONO) volume decreased slightly, delivering 14.0 million hectolitres (2019: 14.1 million) and outperforming the overall portfolio in most of our markets. The no-alcohol portfolio grew mid-single-digit, driven by Heineken® 0.0 globally and Maltina in Nigeria.
We entered the Hard Seltzer category with Pure Piraña in Mexico and New Zealand in September and more launches will come in 2021. In Mexico, Pure Piraña is the first nationwide seltzer brand available across all channels, complemented by Amstel Ultra Seltzer, launched in January 2021. In the USA, together with AriZona we announced the launch of AriZona SunRise Hard Seltzer in 2021.
Our e-commerce platforms showed strong growth as digitalisation trends accelerated, consumers changed shopping patterns and customers adapted to new realities.
- Beerwulf, our direct-to-consumer platform in Europe, nearly doubled its revenues. All markets grew strongly, most notably the UK where revenues tripled. Online sales of our home-draught systems the Sub and Blade grew in the mid-double-digits.
- All together our direct-to-consumer platforms Beerwulf, Six2Go and Drinkies tripled the number of orders from consumers in the year.
- We continued to deploy our business-to-business digital platforms at speed. We are operational in 25 markets covering more than
€1 billion of our net revenue as we connect more than 100,000 customers in traditional channels. - Our platforms also include digital connections to cashier systems and on-trade equipment, including fridges and draught beer columns. By the end of 2020, we connected to more than 130,000 customers globally.
SUSTAINABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY
2020 was an unprecedented year in which we continued to advance against all our sustainable development ambitions, with people's health and safety at the heart of our response to the pandemic. 2020 also marked an inflexion point as we concluded our decade-long Brewing a Better World commitments and paved the way for our next phase of sustainability and responsibility ambitions.
Over the last decade we made significant progress on all six of our focus areas, designed to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including to promote health and safety in our operations, protect our water resources, reduce CO2 emissions, source sustainably, advocate responsible consumption, and grow with the communities where we operate.
For years, we have been a staunch advocate for making moderate consumption cool by targeting an investment of
Our carbon emissions in production reduced a further
We reduced water usage by a third since 2008 to 3.4 hectolitres of water per hectolitre produced and 3.1 hectolitres in water-stressed areas, two years ahead of plan. In March 2019, we introduced our 2030 water ambition ‘Every Drop’, which looks beyond traditional water efficiency metrics to put the health of local watersheds front and centre. Ten production sites located in Mexico, Spain and Egypt replenished more water in the respective watersheds than used in their final products through nature-based solutions and infrastructure improvement projects.
We significantly increased our raw materials from sustainable sources to
On safety, we further reduced accident frequency by
In addition to our Brewing a Better World programme, we use the power of our diversity as the most international brewer to create a more inclusive work environment. At the end of 2020, there were 61 nationalities (2016: 53) and
In 2021 we will continue to Raise the Bar on responsible consumption, environmental and social sustainability and will announce a new 2030 ambition for Brewing a Better World.
More details on our Sustainability and Responsibility programmes and progress will be available on our website and in our 2020 Annual Report.
OPERATING PROFIT PERFORMANCE
Operating profit was materially impacted by the negative consequences of COVID-19, partially offset by significant mitigation actions.
Operating profit (beia) declined
The operating profit decline in Europe was amplified by an over
In Mexico, beer volume declined in the mid-teens. Operations were suspended throughout most of the second quarter and faced operating restrictions throughout the year.
In South Africa, total volume declined in the thirties as our strong momentum was disrupted by a COVID-related suspension of all alcohol companies in the second quarter, a ban on the sale of alcohol during July and August, and impacts to various supply chain expansion projects that constrained our capacity in the second part of the year.
In Indonesia, total volume declined in the forties given the impact of lockdowns throughout most of the year and the absence of international tourism in the key Bali region.
Input costs per hectolitre increased by around
Other incremental expenses included higher depreciation from previous year investments, provisions for credit losses, safety & protection equipment, donations and other forms of support to our customers and communities.
We implemented cost mitigating actions throughout the year, reducing all discretionary expenses, pausing projects, and cancelling senior managers' bonuses. These actions resulted in a net organic reduction of circa
For more details, please refer to the Financial Review.
EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS AND IMPAIRMENTS
The impact of exceptional items and amortisation of acquisition-related intangibles (eia) was
This included impairments (net of reversal) of
Exceptional items also included restructuring costs of
NET PROFIT AND LOSS
Net profit (beia) decreased
TOTAL DIVIDEND FOR 2020
The Heineken N.V. dividend policy is to pay a ratio of
2021 OUTLOOK STATEMENTS
Overall the COVID-19 pandemic and governments' measures continue to have a material impact on our markets and business. 2021 started with many restrictions across our markets, including on-trade closures and restrictions to travel. In Europe in particular, we estimate that at the end of January 2021, less than
According to the World Health Organisation, the effect of vaccines on the pandemic will depend on several factors including their effectiveness, speed of their approval, manufacturing and delivery and the number of people getting vaccinated. As such, we expect the pandemic to continue to impact our business in the first half of 2021 and market conditions to gradually improve in the second part of the year.
Input costs per hectolitre are expected to be volatile due to channel and product mix effects. Based on our hedged positions for 2021, we expect a significantly higher negative transactional currency impact on input costs.
The EverGreen programme will be in full deployment.
Overall we expect revenue, operating profit and operating profit margin to stay below the level of 2019.
We also anticipate:
- An average effective interest rate (beia) broadly in line with 2020 (2020:
3.0% ) - Capital expenditure related to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets of around
€1.8 billion (2020:€1.6 billion ). - The effective tax rate (beia) to stay above 2019 level due to the effect of fixed cost components in the tax line.
TRANSLATIONAL CURRENCY CALCULATED IMPACT
The translational currency impact for 2020 was negative, amounting to
Applying spot rates as of 8 February 2021 to the 2020 financial results as a baseline, we calculate a negative currency translational impact of approximately
EVERGREEN
In the second half of 2020, we embarked on a strategic review, listening to and engaging with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. We named our journey EverGreen, drawing inspiration from nature's resilience and constant adaptation and renewal.
With EverGreen, we aim to emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis and build on our unique strengths to deliver superior and profitable growth in a fast-changing world. We pursue a growth algorithm that translates superior growth and continuous productivity improvements into purposeful investments and operating leverage while raising the bar on environmental sustainability, responsible consumption and our people strategy.
We provide an update of our progress below. The programme is on-going and we will provide further updates in the future.
Our unique strengths and opportunities
HEINEKEN's many strengths form a solid foundation to build upon, including:
- A strong track-record of superior top-line growth
- The iconic Heineken® brand
- A footprint skewed towards growth
- A winning premium brand portfolio in a world where premium is poised to outperform
- A global leadership in non-alcoholic beer, a segment with much potential for growth
- A distinctive entrepreneurial model centred on our local operations
- Our HEINEKEN values and culture centred on quality and people, and
- Our long-term focus rooted in our 156 year history.
HEINEKEN is a superior growth company, with significant value creation potential going forward:
- Enhance our portfolio and strengthen our digital route to consumer, with consumers and customers at the core
- Complement growth with increased productivity focus
- Accelerate IT simplification and capture full e-commerce potential
- Raise our Brewing a Better World ambition towards 2030
- Drive speed, agility and external orientation in our organisation
Our way forward
As our markets recover, we aim to deliver superior top-line growth with a sharpened consumer- and customer-focused strategy across five dimensions:
- Expand and develop our footprint to maintain our growth advantage
- Focus and expand our portfolio to better serve consumers
- Shape and strengthen our route to consumer digitally
- Scale execution excellence through commercial capability building
- Drive intentional resource allocation towards growth.
We will expand and develop our footprint by strengthening our #1 and #2 positions and continuously expanding into new growth markets via greenfields and partnerships. We have also started to take action to resolve a number of value dilutive operations in our current footprint.
Regarding our brand portfolio, we will amplify our strong premium position by winning value share with Heineken®, everywhere; scale and replicate the success of our international brands; and make fewer, bigger bets in local premium brands. We will also stretch beer and move beyond beer, innovating to serve consumers better. We will make
We aim to become the best connected brewer, digitally enabling and strengthening our route to consumer. We will connect all our customers through our business-to-business platforms, reaching
Continuous productivity improvements will fuel the investments required to support our growth strategy. We are building a cost management capability to continuously develop initiatives and cultivate a cost-conscious culture. At the end of 2020, we launched an initial productivity programme of
The initiatives to deliver the
- An organisational redesign in 2021 to be more efficient and effective
- An efficiency programme to reduce complexity and number of SKUs, reduce conversion costs in production and optimize logistics
- A commercial productivity programme tackling our least effective spend, fully reinvesting the productivity gains
Regarding the organisational redesign, on 28 October 2020, HEINEKEN announced a review of the effectiveness and efficiency of its organisations at head-office, regional offices and each of our local operations. The overall restructuring programme will reduce our employee base by c.8,000 people, with a total restructuring charge of around
Our productivity programme enables accelerated investments with sharpened resource and capital allocation, in particular:
- We will drive efficiency of our consumer and customer-focused investments, restoring our marketing and sales spend as a percentage of net revenue (beia) to the levels of 2019 by latest 2023, fully reinvesting all commercial productivity gains
- We will front-load investments to accelerate our digital & technology transformation, including our digital route to consumer, digital core & backbone, advanced analytics and global data hubs
- We will sharpen our resource allocation within and across our local operations
- Will maintain our disciplined use of capital, maintain a strong balance sheet and remain committed to bringing back our Net Debt to EBITDA (beia) ratio below 2.5x.
Finally, we will Raise the Bar on responsible consumption, environmental and social sustainability and will introduce a renewed ambition for this decade in the coming months. We will also step-up on our people strategy, to be more externally oriented, boost capability building and enhance disciplined entrepreneurship in our operating model.
Long term value creation
As we charted this next growth chapter we have made some general assumptions on the recovery.
We expect market conditions to gradually improve in the second part of 2021 and to continue improving into 2022, with significant differences across markets and channels. In particular, we see a slow recovery of the on-trade channel in Europe.
With EverGreen we aim to create long-term value for all our stakeholders by delivering superior top-line growth, restoring margins and gearing for operating leverage. As we recover from the crisis, we expect to achieve an operating profit margin (beia) of around
For more details, please join us for the presentation of EverGreen today during our video webcast. Details on the next page.
SUPERVISORY BOARD COMPOSITION
HEINEKEN will make a non-binding nomination for Mr Maarten Das' re-appointment and the new appointment of Mr Nitin Paranjpe as member of the Supervisory Board of Heineken N.V. Both appointments will be for a four-year term and subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting in 2021 ('the 2021 AGM'). Mr Paranjpe, Chief Operating Officer of Unilever with extensive FMCG experience, particularly in Asia, will be a strong successor for Mr Christophe Navarre, who will reach his maximum tenure upon conclusion of the 2021 AGM. The Supervisory Board is grateful for Mr Navarre’s commitment and meaningful contribution over the past twelve years.
In December 2020, the Supervisory Board decided to install a Sustainability & Responsibility Committee to increase the focus and oversight of the overall Company strategy and performance related to environmental sustainability, social sustainability and responsible consumption. This Committee comprises Mr Fernández Carbajal (Chairman), Mr de Carvalho, Mrs Mars Wright, Mrs Ripley and upon his appointment by the 2021 AGM, Mr Paranjpe. Consequently, the Supervisory Board decided to discontinue and absorb the Americas Committee's responsibilities and supervise all regions alike going forward.
ENQUIRIES
| Media | Investors |
| Sarah Backhouse | José Federico Castillo Martinez |
| Director of Global Communication | Investor Relations Director |
| Michael Fuchs | Janine Ackermann / Robin Achten |
| Financial Communications Manager | Investor Relations Manager / Senior Analyst |
| E-mail: pressoffice@heineken.com | E-mail: investors@heineken.com |
| Tel: +31-20-5239355 | Tel: +31-20-5239590 |
INVESTOR CALENDAR HEINEKEN N.V.
| Combined financial and sustainability annual report publication | 19 February 2021 |
| Trading Update for Q1 2021 | 21 April 2021 |
| Annual General Meeting of Shareholders | 22 April 2021 |
| Half Year 2021 Results | 02 August 2021 |
| Quotation ex-interim dividend 2021 | 04 August 2021 |
| Interim dividend payable | 11 August 2021 |
| Trading Update for Q3 2021 | 27 October 2021 |
CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS
HEINEKEN will host an analyst and investor video webcast about its 2020 FY results combined with an update on the on-going strategic review at 14:00 CET/ 13:00 GMT/ 08.00 EST. The live video webcast will be accessible via the company’s website:
https://www.theheinekencompany.com/investors/results-reports-webcasts-and-presentations. An audio replay service will also be made available after the webcast at the above web address. Analysts and investors can dial-in using the following telephone numbers:
| United Kingdom (Local): 020 3936 2999 |
| Netherlands: 085 888 7233 |
| USA: 1 646 664 1960 |
| All other locations: +44 20 3936 2999 |
| Participation password for all countries: 293180 |
Editorial information:
HEINEKEN is the world's most international brewer. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium and non-alcoholic beer and cider brands. Led by the Heineken® brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. We are committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through "Brewing a Better World", sustainability is embedded in the business. HEINEKEN has a well-balanced geographic footprint with leadership positions in both developed and developing markets.
We employ over 84,000 employees and operate breweries, malteries, cider plants and other production facilities in more than 70 countries. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares trade on the Euronext in Amsterdam. Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIA NA and HEIO NA and on Reuters under HEIN.AS and HEIO.AS. HEINEKEN has two sponsored level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programmes: Heineken N.V.
(OTCQX: HEINY) and Heineken Holding N.V. (OTCQX: HKHHY). Most recent information is available on HEINEKEN's website: www.theHEINEKENcompany.com and follow us on Twitter via @HEINEKENCorp.
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Disclaimer:
This press release contains forward-looking statements with regard to the financial position and results of HEINEKEN’s activities. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Many of these risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond HEINEKEN’s ability to control or estimate precisely, such as future market and economic conditions, developments in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related government measures, the behaviour of other market participants, changes in consumer preferences, the ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and achieve anticipated synergies, costs of raw materials, interest-rate and exchange-rate fluctuations, changes in tax rates, changes in law, change in pension costs, the actions of government regulators and weather conditions. These and other risk factors are detailed in HEINEKEN’s publicly filed annual reports. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only of the date of this press release. HEINEKEN does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Market share estimates contained in this press release are based on outside sources, such as specialised research institutes, in combination with management estimates.
1 In 2020 restructuring costs amounted to
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