Investors sour on Carlsberg's China sales despite soft drink success

By Emma Rumney

LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg missed half-year profit and sales estimates on Wednesday as severe weather compounded weak demand in China, sending its shares down as much as 4% to a seven-week low.

Shares in the world's third-largest brewer fell despite its forecast of full-year profit towards the upper end of a previous guidance range, saying benefits from its 2025 purchase of soft drinks maker Britvic were being delivered faster than expected.

The maker of Kronenbourg 1664 and Tuborg missed analyst forecasts across sales volume, revenue and profits in the first half, weighed down by China, its largest beer market, where weather including typhoons and flooding further dented demand.

CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said the weather, which continued into July, had hit sales at a time when local beer sellers had higher than normal inventories for the summer months, meaning Carlsberg's performance would likely be hit in the third quarter too.

"It is an impact we just have to live with," he told reporters on a call.

SOFT DRINKS A BRIGHT SPOT

China was the "bitter spot" in results and drove the share reaction, said Haider Anjum, an analyst at Jyske Bank, adding Carlsberg had otherwise shown a strong performance on soft drinks, debt reduction and cash generation.

The company acquired Britvic in 2025 as part of a pivot to soft drinks to deal with years of weak beer demand.

Recently, brewers have struggled to grow volumes as a result of soaring costs of living, geopolitical turbulence including the Iran war and U.S. tariffs, and shifting drinking habits.

Carlsberg said its soft drink sales volume had grown 9% and now accounted for 30% of its portfolio. Aarup-Andersen said beer would continue to be key, but soft drinks offered more growth potential.

Carlsberg now expects to deliver approximately 50% of the total expected £110 million ($149 million) synergies from its takeover of Britvic in 2026, compared with the previous expectation of 30% to 40%.

This prompted it to narrow its full-year guidance range for annual operating profit growth to between 4% and 6%. It previously forecast between 2% and 6% growth.

Carlsberg reported first-half operating profit of 7.45 billion Danish crowns ($1.15 billion), missing analyst expectations for 7.55 billion crowns.

($1 = 6.4515 Danish crowns)

($1 = 0.7383 pounds)

(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Joe Bavier, Mark Potter and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)