Carlsberg (CARL-A.CO, CARL-B.CO) on Wednesday narrowed its full-year profit growth outlook toward the upper end of its range, citing faster-than-expected delivery of synergies from its Britvic acquisition and good visibility into the important summer months, which offset the weakness in the Chinese market.
The Danish brewer, which acquired the British soft drinks company Britvic in January 2025, now expects organic operating profit growth for 2026 to be between 4% and 6% from the 13.69 billion Danish kroner recorded in 2025. It previously expected growth of 2% to 6%.
Reporting its first-half results, the company said it expects to deliver 50% of the total 110 million-pound-sterling synergies from the Britvic transaction in 2026, compared with the previous expectation of 30% to 40%.
Total volume in the first half grew 2.8% year over year, mainly supported by the addition of Britvic. Soft drinks, which accounted for 31% of volumes, grew 9% organically.
IFRS attributable profit for the six months ended June 30 rose to 3.8 billion kroner from 3.36 billion kroner a year earlier, while revenue climbed to 47.05 billion kroner from 45.86 billion kroner.
"Carlsberg delivered solid top-line and earnings growth for the first half-year despite the continued uncertain macro environment, and we saw sustained good progress on our key strategic priorities, with particularly strong growth for soft drinks and alcohol-free brews," Group Chief Executive Jacob Aarup-Andersen said.
Carlsberg's A shares were down nearly 2%, while B shares were over 3% in the red during early trading in Copenhagen.
