China, the world’s biggest beer market, has generated slower growth and thinner margins for SABMiller – a reversal in fortunes that the UK-listed brewer, which co-owns China’s number one brewery, attributes partly to the Chinese leadership transition earlier this month.
SABMiller said its share of the lager market had fallen in a handful of China’s provinces during the three months to September 30, including Sichuan – which had been its most profitable province until last year. Across China, group revenues per hectolitre nudged up 2 per cent. However, operating margins decreased on the back of intensifying competition, which raised the cost of securing shelf space in bars and shops.
“We think it was affected more by competitive dynamics and the political transition – in the sense that everyone, from officials to consumers, are a bit uncertain, as they always are [at times of change],” claimed Graham Mackay, executive chairman of SABMiller. At such times, he said, “they believe in money under the mattress”.