The joint-stock brewery Aldaris reports that it sold 21.4% more non-alcoholic beer last year than during the previous year. This was down to improved offers and the development of smaller-volume packaging, the brewery told the LETA news agency.

The market for beer overall was intensely competitive in Latvia, and there was a redistribution of segments which resulted in an overall price increase of just 1%, and that despite an increase in excise taxes, the company explained.

In the niche beer segment, sales of wheat beer, multi-flavoured beer and other, similar products increased by 14.6% last year compared to 2023, while prices grew by 0.4%.  In the lager segment, by contrast, sales volumes in 2024 rose by 14.3% on the year, driven by a 2.2% decrease in the average price per litre.

In the mainstream beer segment, Aldaris sales increased by 4.6% year on year, with the price of the product declining by 1.1%. The economy beer category was the one in which excise duty increases particularly caused price increases, thus leading to a 1.3% decline in sales. The sale of craft beer fell by 4.8% even as prices increased by 15.5%.

In the speciality beer category, Aldaris’ 1664 Blanc brand had an increase in sales of 39.2% last year against the year before. Sales of the Mezpils Alus brand, by contrast, rose by 19% to 6.49 million litres.

In the non-beer category, Aldaris sold 32.7% more of its Garage brand alcoholic cocktail in 2024, sales of cider products grew by 22.6%, sales of the Battery brand of energy drinks rose by 14.6%, and sales of the Vichy drinking water brand increased by 9.5%.

Aldaris had revenues of EUR 28.229 million in 2023, which was a rise of 6% against the year before, while the company’s losses declined multiple times over to EUR 1.227 million.

Financial results for 2024 have not yet been released.

Aldaris is part of the Carlsberg Group in Denmark, and it is wholly owned by the Carlsberg Sweden Holding 2 company in Sweden. Aldaris was registered in 1992 and has share capital of EUR 37.6 million.

Source: BNS

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