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Management comments
Consistent execution of our strategy
We made consistent progress across the 3 pillars of our strategy in 2024 and delivered another year of reliable compounding growth. The combination of our megabrands, mega platforms and our focus on innovation to meet consumer trends with both balanced choices and superior value is a winning proposition. While our overall volume performance this year was constrained by the soft consumer environments in China and Argentina, the global beer category remains vibrant with our volumes growing in the majority of our markets and by 0.9% overall when excluding these two countries.
We advanced our digital transformation, with 75% of our revenue now transacted through B2B digital platforms. The momentum of BEES marketplace accelerated, with the gross merchandise value (GMV) growing by 57% versus FY23 to reach 2.5 billion USD.
As we continue to optimize our business we delivered a high-quality set of financial results. USD revenues increased to an all-time high, EBITDA grew at the top-end of our outlook, Underlying EPS increased by 15.4% in USD and free cash flow generation increased by 2.5 billion USD. We enhanced the efficiency of our resource allocation and delivered an important milestone in our capital allocation journey with our net debt to EBITDA ratio reaching 2.89x as of 31 December 2024, below 3x for the first time since 2015.
The beer category is large and profitable, continues to gain share of alcohol globally and our footprint has structural tailwinds for long-term volume growth with favorable demographics, economic growth and opportunities to increase category participation.
Continued global momentum
Our top-line increased by 2.7% in FY24, with revenue growth in 75% of our markets. Revenue per hl increased by 4.3%, accelerating sequentially through the year, as we continued to make disciplined revenue management choices and drive premiumization, while investing in our brands to provide value to our consumers. Excluding China and Argentina our volumes globally grew by 0.9% but overall performance was significantly constrained by these two countries, resulting in a total volume decline of 1.4%.
EBITDA increased by 8.2% with production cost efficiencies and disciplined overhead management driving EBITDA margin expansion of 179bps. Underlying EPS was 3.53 USD, a 15.4% increase versus FY23, driven primarily by USD EBIT growth and optimization of our net finance costs.
Progressing our strategic priorities
• | | Lead and grow the category |
In FY24, we invested 7.2 billion USD in sales and marketing behind our megabrands, mega platforms and brand building capabilities to lead the long-term growth of the global beer category. The beer and Beyond Beer category continued to gain share of total alcohol globally with further growth projected over the next 5 years, according to IWSR. We estimate that we gained or maintained share in two thirds of our markets, with our megabrands, which represent 57% of our revenue, leading our growth with a 4.6% revenue increase.
Our unparalleled portfolio holds 20 iconic billion-dollar revenue beer brands and 8 out of the top 10 most valuable beer brands in the world, with Corona and Budweiser the #1 and #2, according to Kantar BrandZ. We successfully activated our portfolio in some of the largest consumer moments such as the Olympics, NBA, Copa America, Lollapalooza, Wimbledon and the Super Bowl, driving an increase in our overall portfolio brand power.
Our marketing effectiveness and creativity was recognized by again being named the most effective marketer in the world by both Effies and the World Advertising Research Center and being the most awarded beverage company at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
| o | Category Participation: Investments in our megabrands and innovations drove an estimated increase in the percentage of beer consumers purchasing our portfolio globally of approximately 90 basis points. Participation increases were driven by improvements with all consumer groups in the US and with new legal drinking age consumers (LDA-24 years old) in 65% of our markets. |
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ab-inbev.com | | | | Press release – 26 February 2025 – 2 |