5 Levers That Drive Our
Growth and Long-Term Value Creation
Royal Unibrew is a growth company. We do not grow by chance–we grow by choice. Our Growth and Value Creation Formula is our strategic playbook that guides every move across the Group. The formula provides strategic direction for where we invest, how we differentiate, and how we create impact and long-term value for our stakeholders.
Volume Growth
We are a regional multi-beverage company with market-leading portfolios of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, holding strong positions across the Nordic and Baltic countries. We also have niche positions in Italy, France, Benelux, and Canada, and export to over 70 countries worldwide. Our local brands are complemented by renowned international brands under license.
Focusing on selected growth categories across geographies, we aim for higher organic volume growth than the market average. Our strong portfolio, distribution power, and excellent in-store execution contribute to growing market shares. We expect limited market growth in the coming years, with the best prospects in non-alcoholic beverages.
Value Growth
We optimize our brand portfolio value through a focused price/pack strategy, balancing pricing and packaging to meet consumer expectations. By combining innovations with a focus on profitable channels and categories, we drive value on a daily basis.
Due to cost inflation, the price per volume unit has increased significantly in recent years. We remain focused on product profitability by monitoring consumer demand and leveraging our price/pack architecture and other price/mix tools.
Our strategic focus on premiumization and growing higher-margin areas within our portfolio enhances our ability to increase the price per volume unit, forming a solid foundation for margin expansion.
Operating Efficiency
Cost efficiency and efficiency improvements in general have always been part of how we work and think. We invest in modern equipment and systems to drive production efficiency.
Our decentralized organization, lean corporate set-up, and culture-driven ‘can-do’ attitude combined with a pronounced degree of teamwork and sharing of best practices across the organization enable us to do things better and more efficiently every day.
Acquisitions and Partnerships
Creating value through acquisitions has always been central to our strategy. We ensure acquisitions fit our operating model and leverage our business model to extract synergies.
The timing of acquisitions is unpredictable and cannot be planned. Recently, we have made several long-awaited acquisitions. While not transformative individually, together with legacy business they have transformed us from being a country-based company to a pan-Nordic entity with strongholds and growth opportunities in Western Europe.
Additionally, we have made bolt-on acquisitions to enhance market positions and acquired production assets to expand capacity and bring production closer to consumption. These acquisitions are expected to contribute to organic EBIT growth in the coming years.
Shareholder Return
Our multi-beverage model is highly cash generative, enabling business growth aligned with our strategic priorities and delivering attractive shareholder returns. We focus on positive total shareholder returns through increased distributions (dividends and share buy-backs) and share price growth. Share buy-backs help maintain financial flexibility within our capital allocation policy.
Source: Annual report 2024