Pivovary Staropramen reported a net profit of 807 million crowns last year, an increase of 24 percent year on year. Net profit was significantly affected by dividends from subsidiaries. However, the company’s revenues fell by seven percent to CZK 4.06 billion. Due to closed restaurant operations, the company suffered an operating loss of four million crowns last year against a previous profit of CZK 357 million.
The pandemic also affected the EBITDA indicator, ie profit before interest, taxes and depreciation fell by 37 percent year on year to 589 million. “The decrease in sales was due to a change in the structure of sales on the domestic market, when the operation of pubs and restaurants was significantly reduced due to anti-epidemic measures,” added the company’s CFO Silvia Miklósová.
Last year, the company managed to sell 893,000 hectoliters of beer on export markets, by more than 50,000 hectoliters year-on-year. It sells mainly to Slovakia, Sweden, Germany, Hungary and Poland. On the contrary, Staropramen’s licensed production fell by a tenth, with Ukraine remaining the largest market. “Last year, the Staropramen brand maintained its position as the second best-selling Czech beer brand abroad,” the company concluded.
The company has previously stated that its sales in the Czech Republic fell by 2.4 percent year on year last year. Total sales in the Czech Republic and abroad amounted to 3.19 million hectoliters. They were so similar to the year before, when it was 3.2 million hectoliters.
In January this year, Zdenka Havlena was replaced by Croatian Teo Ćendo. He was previously the regional director of the Zagrebačka brewery.
Last year, the consolidated revenues of the Pivovary Staropramen Group increased by CZK 1 billion year-on-year to CZK 10.38 billion. The group had a profit of 730 million after a previous loss of about 3.1 billion. For example, the company operates the Staropramen in Smíchov and the Ostravar brewery in Ostrava.
Breweries in the Czech Republic brewed 20.1 million hectoliters of beer last year, and year-on-year exhibitions fell by 6.9 percent. Last year, beer consumption per capita fell by about seven liters, ie 14 large beers, to 135 liters, and was the lowest since the 1960s. The decline in production is due to coronavirus restrictions and restrictions on the operation of restaurants in the Czech Republic, but also abroad, representatives of the Czech Association of Breweries and Malthouses have previously said.