Spanish Brewer Mahou Reports Sharp Falls In 2020

April 9, 2021April 9, 2021 Madrid Metropolitan Business, spain news

Spain´s biggest brewery, Mahou San Miguel, has reported a 98% fall in profits for 2020 compared to the previous year.

The group´s profits fell from €170 million in 2019 to just over €2 million last year.

The Madrid based drinks group blamed ” the impact of the health situation and the measures implemented to help alleviate it, such as closures and restrictions in hotel establishments”.

The Spanish hospitality sector had a catastrophic 2020 due to the pandemic lockdown and is a key driver of income and profts for the company.

Bars and restaurants accounted for 55% of their total billing in 2019 but only 40% in 2020.

The group´s overall turnover fell by 10% to €1,252 million, but a massive 31.7% in Spain, set off against improved home sales and better performance in key international markets such as the UK and United States.

The company´s CEO, Alberto Rodríguez-Toquero, also underlined at the AGM press conference that they had “ invested more than €200 million, the highest figure for Mahou San Miguel in its history in this regard”.

He was also optimistic about the immediate future, saying: “We are not in a race against time to return to that profitability in the short term, but rather to bring this company to its better version, that if it is in 2023, better”, adding, “2021 will be better than 2020, because we are better and everything points to it”.

The group´s origins go back to it´s founding in Madrid in 1890 as Hijos de Casimiro Mahou with a local brewery in Calle Amaniel and over generations expanded, first nationally then internationally to become San Miguel Spain in the early 1950´s followed by ambitious expansion and aquisition of brands in the United States and the UK .