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Globally, beer remains the alcoholic product with the highest revenue.

On August 5, the 2024 Fortune Global 500 list was officially released. The list data showed that the total profit of the world's top 500 companies in 2023 (Note: the Fortune Global 500 list is based on the data of the previous year) will be close to 3 trillion US dollars, an increase of 2.3% over the previous year. The "threshold" for this list has increased from 30.9 billion US dollars to 32.1 billion US dollars.

Reporters from the Nanduwan Finance-New Alcohol Consumption Index Research Group noticed that a total of 16 food and beverage companies were among the world's top 500 companies. Among them, in terms of alcohol (classified as beverages), Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken were on the list, ranking 231st and 487th respectively, while other alcohol companies (excluding non-core businesses incorporated into the world's top 500 companies) were not on the list.

Among the four beverage companies on the list, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken are both beer manufacturers. (Screenshot from Fortune Global 500 list)

In terms of revenue scale, AB InBev's revenue in 2023 was US$59.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%, which made the company's ranking rise by 10 places; Heineken recorded US$32.823 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, thanks to revenue growth, returning to the list. However, Nanduwan Finance reporters noticed that while the scale of the above two companies grew, their profits declined, with a decline of 10.5% and 10.2%.

A reporter from Nanduwan Financial News Agency noticed that last year, the huge increase in Anheuser-Busch InBev's performance was mainly due to the substantial increase in markets represented by China. According to the company's 2023 financial report, while sales in markets including North America and Europe fell, sales in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 4.2%, of which China's market revenue increased by 12.3% and sales increased by 4.3%, exceeding the industry level and also driving Anheuser-Busch InBev's revenue growth.

What's interesting is that in the first half of this year, Anheuser-Busch InBev saw a "growth and decline" in the market. Due to the decline in sales and revenue in the Chinese market due to heavy rains and other reasons, Anheuser-Busch InBev's performance in the Asia-Pacific region declined. However, the continued growth in Central America, South America, Europe and Africa led to the company's revenue in the first half of this year increasing by 1.88% year-on-year to US$29.88 billion.

For Heineken, returning to the Fortune Global 500 list is also related to the growth of the Chinese market. Nanduwan Finance reporter checked Heineken's 2023 annual report and found that the company had a good development momentum in the Chinese market last year under the cooperation with China Resources Beer. Silver products produced in China were sold in 50 markets led by China, Vietnam and the United States, with sales growth of more than 30%. It is worth noting that Heineken recorded a loss in the first half of this year, which was mainly due to the impairment of the China Resources Beer shares held by it being lower than the cost price.

Judging from the above data, the performance of the Chinese market is related to the rankings of the two Fortune 500 beer companies mentioned above, and the high-end process of this market has a direct impact on Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken.

It is worth noting that in the 7-year process of high-end beer in my country, Tsingtao Beer, Carlsberg and Yanjing Beer have increased their investment in high-end beer and achieved good returns. In the first half of this year, the high-end trend has undergone new changes. Data shows that the cumulative beer output of China's large-scale enterprises is 19.088 million kiloliters, a year-on-year increase of 0.1%. However, since March, beer output has continued to decline, down 6.5%, 9.1% and 4.5% year-on-year respectively. In June, the beer output of large-scale enterprises was 4.11 million kiloliters, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%.

Industry insiders believe that for the beer industry, where nearly one-third of its production capacity has been replaced by high-end products, the decline in output, in addition to weather factors, may mean some new developments in the consumption of high-end beer in terminal channels, and also indicates that new changes are taking place in the domestic beer market. The specific impact remains to be seen.

Nanduwan Financial News reporter Beibei