Molson Coors beat fourth-quarter sales and profit estimates on Thursday, helped by recovering demand for its beer brands, including Coors Light and Miller Lite, in North and South America.
Shares of the company were up about 5% in premarket trading on Thursday.
The company saw sales recover in certain regions as consumers continued to lean on their favourite beers after cutting back on expensive wines and spirits.
Net sales in its Americas segment were down 2.6% in the quarter ended 31 December, after falling 11% in the third quarter.
The improvement in sales in the Americas – its biggest revenue-generating region – was driven by a consecutive rise in brand volumes in Canada.
Molson Coors – similar to its peer Constellation Brands – has been ramping up prices to counter the high cost of input materials.
That – along with the company’s efforts to lower marketing expenses – helped it in posting underlying earnings per share of $1.30, compared with analysts’ estimates of $1.13 per share, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
Results
Its quarterly net sales were $2.74 billion – above analysts’ estimate of $2.70 billion.
The company expects annual net sales to be up by a low single-digit percentage, compared to analysts’ expectation of a 0.55% decline.
It added that its outlook does not take into account the impact of trade policy activities or tariffs by the US government, nor any potential retaliatory actions by other countries.
US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China have alcoholic firms scrambling to take up measures to try and mitigate impact from the potential trade war.
Last month, Molson Coors bought an 8.5% stake in an $88 million deal to get exclusive rights to market cocktail mixers and tonic water for British company Fevertree Drinks as the beer maker looked to expand its non-alcoholic offerings.
Read More: Molson Coors To Invest £88m In Fevertree Drinks And Market It In The US
