Proactive Investors - Molson Coors Beverage Co (NYSE:TAP), the owner of Coors Light, Miller Lite and Carling, saw net income improve 23% year on year to $425.3 million in the three months to 30 June.
Lower operating costs helped to support the bottom line despite sales of $3.8 billion coming in slightly lower than the second quarter of 2023.
A strong cash position allowed Molson Coors to return $353 million back to shareholders Through dividends and buybacks.
These results were “largely as we expected”, said management.
“Our performance in the first half of the year was largely driven by favorable price and favorable US shipment timing offset by lower contract brewing volumes.
“To ensure we met supply needs during the peak summer season, we deliberately increased our US distributor inventories ahead of and during the strike at our Fort Worth brewery which ran 14 weeks from February to May.”
Molson Coors kept its full-year outlook unchanged. Sales growth is expected to be in the low single-digit range with underlying profit in the mid single-digit range.
Shares rallied 6.5% following publication of the results.