Carlsberg – No.10 (66)
Despite its scale ($11.61bn sales) you sometimes feel that Dutch brewer Carlsberg is outgunned a little by larger rivals – read AB InBev, SAB Miller and Heineken – and some analysts and investors are twitchy about its large-scale exposure to Russia, where it has a 39%+ market share.
But bans on street kiosk sales and an advertising ban have hit growth – Russian shipments fell in the quarter to June 30 – and Western Europe remains Carlsberg’s largest market, but volumes here are challenged and sales fell 6% to 13.9% to 13.9m hectoliters due to poor weather in Q2.
Stagnation in Europe led CEO Joergen Buhl Rasmussen to state in February 2012 that Carlsberg was looking “very actively in Asia” for acquisitions to boost its footprint in a high growth region.
The company was a non-mover at #66 on the overall Forbes list.