News & Analysis on Food & Beverage Development & Technology
01-Sep-2025 Last updated on 01-Sep-2025 at 05:51 GMT
Carlsberg Malaysia recently announced its H1FY2025 financial results, reporting a decline of -6.5% year-on-year in group revenue to RM1.15bn (US$272.7m) as well as a decline of -3.0% in group profit from operations to RM211.9m (US$50.2m).
Both numbers were negatively affected by the shorter period available for Chinese New Year sales this year due to the dates, as well as the firm’s Singapore operations, which saw a drop of -11.9% in revenue and -31.9% in profit respectively.
That said, the brewery still managed to see an overall growth in group net profits by 3.2% year-on-year to RM81.9m (US$19.4m), attributed to the effects of lower tax expenses in Malaysia as well as the positive performance of its Sri Lanka business.
“In Singapore, the decline in revenue and profit has been due to softer on-trade performance as well as intensified competitive pricing pressures in this market,” Carlsberg Malaysia Managing Director Stefano Clini told the floor during the firm’s most recent investors meeting.
“There has also been obvious cautious consumer sentiment across the board, which has resulted in subdued discretionary spending.”
Carlsberg saw dips in all the sales of all its major product categories across the board: -5% in mainstream beers like Carlsberg, -12% in premium beers like Kronenberg 1664 and Somersby, and -35％ in alcohol free products like Carlsberg 0.0 and Somersby 0.0.
“This has again been due to the shorter Chinese New Year timing, but we have seen strong volume growth from our premium Japanese beer brand Sapporo across both Malaysia and Singapore so this is encouraging,” Clini added.
“To overcome these challenges, we will be investing in consumer-facing campaigns that will help us to regain and drive growth of all our portfolio items from Carlsberg to Somersby.”
In addition, the brewery is hopeful new policy changes in Malaysia will be able to improve consumer demand in the coming year.
“There have been several recent policy developments that could have a positive impact on consumer sentiment, such as the reduction in Malaysia’s Overnight Policy Rate (OPR),” he added.
“This is in addition to a rationalisation of local fuel subsidies and the restructuring of electricity tariffs.”
The OPR is set by Malaysia’s central bank Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and is essentially the benchmark interest rate which influences loan and savings interest rates all through the local economy. In July 2025, BNM lowered the OPR by 0.25% to 2.75%.
At the end of the day though, caution will continue to govern Carlsberg Malaysia’s strategies due to the state of the current economy.
“We remain cautious as Carlsberg Malaysia continues to navigate an uncertain macroeconomic landscape due to external headwinds and subdued consumer sentiment,” Clini said.
“We will focus on cost optimisations in order to support investments in important areas, such as brand premiumisation, product innovation and digital transformation.”
Carlsberg Malaysia is forging ahead with its premiumisation strategy across Malaysia and Singapore despite sales in the category dipping in the last quarter of 2024.
Carlsberg Malaysia believes that the upcoming festive season as well as stronger economic growth will help to drive improved sales for the rest of 2024, despite a negative performance in Singapore in Q3.
Carlsberg Malaysia has committed to continue its focus on premium products despite seeing a significant drop in sales in the first half of the year.
By Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd.
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