Hello everyone, and thank you for joining the Heineken N.V. Q1 2025 trading update. My name is Marie, and I will be coordinating your call today. During the presentation, you can register a question by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad, and if you change your mind, please press star followed by two. We kindly ask that you limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up only. I will now hand over to your host, Tristan van Strien, Director of Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Marie.
Thank you everyone from Amsterdam. Thank you for joining us for today's live webcast of our 2025 Q1 trading updates. Your host will be Harold van den Broek, our Chief Financial Officer. Following the presentation, we will be happy to take your questions. The presentation includes forward-looking statements and expectations based on management's current views and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and it is possible that the actual results may differ materially. For more information, please refer to the disclaimer on the first page of this presentation. I will now turn the call over to Harold.
Thank you, Tristan, and welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Let me take a few minutes to give you a brief summary of the quarter, and as Tristan said, open then for questions. First slide, we delivered net revenue growth in the first quarter of almost 1% despite operating in a challenging consumer and geopolitical environment. As anticipated, and as we highlighted during our full-year results, primarily due to calendar-related factors, we have seen a soft start to the year with beer volume declining to 2%. Yet we are pleased to see our evergreen strategy continue to shape our business. We maintained high-quality growth with our premium portfolio in growth led by Heineken. We are also gaining or holding share in over half of our markets in the first quarter.
Especially Vietnam, India, and Ethiopia delivered good volume growth as a result of strategic actions taken in all of these markets to boost competitiveness. We also see continued strength of our brands in large markets such as Brazil, where we have gained volume and value share according to sell-out data, and in China, where we are outperforming the market with Heineken and recently also Amstel. During the quarter, we have also seen the macroeconomic environment increasingly in flux, which requires us to stay agile and proactively adapt to changing circumstances. Considering the current condition, we confirm all elements of our 2025 outlook expectations, including operating profit BEIA to organically grow to 4%-8%. Let us now look at some highlights.
Net revenue BEIA came in at EUR 6.5 billion, an increase of 0.9% organically, with net revenue BEIA per hectoliter increasing by 3.3%, driven by pricing to compensate for inflation and currency devaluations. Beer volume was down 2.1% organically, as said, impacted by calendar effects like an early Tet and late Easter. Our premium beer volume grew 1.8%, and the Heineken brand was up almost 5%. The quarter one bridge provides a further breakdown of the organic growth of EUR 59 million, or 0.9% revenue BEIA. Total consolidated volume on an organic basis was down 2.4%, slightly behind beer due to a decline of soft drinks in Africa. Underlying pricing was up 3.2%, primarily from pricing in Africa. Our mix was up 0.9% because of the continued premiumization of our portfolio.
The translation of foreign currencies had a negative effect of EUR 345 million, or 5%, mainly due to the strong appreciation of the euro against most of our key currencies, in particular the Mexican peso, Brazilian real, and the Ethiopian birr. Consolidation changes were minimal this quarter. In the first quarter, we saw a continuation of our portfolio strategy, as mentioned. Premium volume growth close to 2% ahead of our total portfolio. This came from a wide range of premium brands and extensions across our regions, of course led by Heineken, but also from Kingfisher Ultra in India and stout brands like Legend in Nigeria and Murphy's in the U.K. Our Heineken brand, again, registered a strong performance this quarter, was up 5%. Let me unpack that Heineken growth for a second.
The Heineken brand saw double-digit growth in more than 25 markets, with its strongest growth in our largest markets of Brazil and China, as well as notable growth in Nigeria. Heineken 0.0 declined mainly due to the aforementioned Easter timing and some important phasing of orders to some key export markets. We are not concerned underlying. We continue to see strong momentum with Heineken Silver growing over 30%, especially in Vietnam, benefiting from a solid Tet and again, good performance in China. On to our results by region, let me start with Africa and Middle East. Net revenue BEIA grew 17.6% organically, with price mix on a constant geographic basis of 20.3%, driven by strong pricing across the region. Total consolidated volume was down 1.5%, as mentioned, due to a decline in carbonated soft drinks in Central Africa and low-value wine in South Africa.
Beer volume increased organically by 1.3%, led by a return to growth in Ethiopia and Egypt. Premium volume also grew, led by Nigeria, where growth was over 30%, led by Heineken, Legend, and Desperados. I am pleased to see that both Nigeria and Ethiopia saw volume growth with signs of stabilizing macroeconomic conditions. Heineken Beverages, our total alcohol beverage business in East and South Africa, delivered beer volume growth, though our total volumes in South Africa declined, as our performance lagged the market currently characterized by high promotional intensity. Moving on to the Americas, net revenue BEIA declined 2.1% organically. Total consolidated beer volume was down 3.7%, again affected by Easter timings, whilst price mix on a constant geographic basis was up 0.7%, led by the continued premiumization of our portfolio.
The Mexican beer market declined slightly, mostly due to timings of Easter, with our performance in line with the market according to our estimates. We saw solid volume growth from Amstel Ultra, Dos Equis, Tecate Original, and Indio. In Brazil, our volumes declined as we cycle last year's inventory build ahead of the April 1, 2024 price increase and Easter phasing, roughly split half-half in terms of impact. On sell-out data, we gained significant volume and value share in a market in low single-digit growth. Solid growth momentum behind Heineken and Amstel continues. In the United States, we saw weakness in the market and in our volumes. Nevertheless, our Heineken 0.0 delivered another consecutive quarter of strong growth. Let me now turn to Asia-Pacific. Net revenue BEIA increased 3.9% organically, with consolidated beer volume up by 2.3% and price mix on a constant geographic basis of 3.6%.
The premium portfolio grew mid-single digit, led by Heineken in Vietnam, India, and Laos, but also Kingfisher Ultra in India. In Vietnam, beer volume grew in the mid-teens, growing ahead of the market. We benefited from a moderate Tet season, a festive event, as you know, skewed to our premium portfolio. Importantly, we have seen market growth returning to both off and on-trade channels. In India, beer volume grew by a mid-single digit, continuing its growth momentum with premium volume growing in the 20s, led by Heineken Silver and Kingfisher Ultra. In China, Heineken grew in the 20s with continued momentum of Heineken Original and Heineken Silver, significantly outperforming both the premium segment as well as the broader industry. Volume of Amstel doubled, and the brand is now reaching meaningful scale. Cambodia is still in decline as we face challenging market conditions and continued increased competitiveness.
Finally, a word on Europe. Net revenue BEIA declined with 4.9%, with beer volume decreasing over 4.7%, impacted by both calendar effects already mentioned, but also by challenging customer negotiations as well as a muted consumer environment. Price mix on a constant geographic basis increased 1.4%. In the U.K., we continue to outperform the market with continued strong performance of Cruzcampo and expansion of Murphy's Stout in both the on and the off-premise. Western Europe saw the biggest impact of customer negotiations, which led to lower promotional activity and shorter-term retail disruptions. Volume, as a consequence, declined mid-single digit. Let me now move to the last slide, which is the outlook statement. We are dealing with a macroeconomic environment that is in flux, with many current and emerging uncertainties, such as inflationary pressures, weak consumer sentiment, and imposition of tariffs in certain markets.
It requires us to remain agile in our allocation of capital and resources. With over 95% of our volume produced locally, we have an advantageous brewery footprint. We are also doubling down on our productivity initiatives and focus on delivering solid operational and financial results. In terms of tariff impact, we distinguish between a direct impact, mostly related to an increased cost base for our products, and an indirect impact related to the effects on global trade, currencies, disruption of country economies, and derived impact on household income. All this, of course, may affect beer market growth. We have a good assessment of the direct impact and have put in place mitigating actions. We planned the year, taking different scenarios into account, and therefore, based on our current assessment of risks and our ability to adapt, this direct impact falls within our expected range.
Consequently, we confirm our full-year outlook of 4%-8% organic growth in operating profit BEIA, with other key elements of our previous guidance unchanged. The indirect impact, as you will understand, is multi-dimensional and complex to assess at present. For instance, we have seen the euro strengthen recently compared to some of our key currencies, leading to a significant translation impact on our 2025 earnings using the spot rates of today. Of course, this has seen a lot of ups and downs in recent weeks. To close, quarter one results were within the range of expectations. We confirm our outlook guidance on key metrics, yet are cautious about the wider economic climate. With that, I'd like to open the line for Q&A. Thank you for listening.
To ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now.
If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure that your device is unmuted locally. Please limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up only. Our first question comes from the line of Edward Mundy of Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Afternoon, Harold. Afternoon, Tristan. Two questions, please. The first is on Vietnam, where you saw some pretty decent momentum in the first quarter. Could you perhaps provide a bit more of a flavor as to what's driving those share gains? What are the things you're doing to boost competitiveness? How do you think about the sustainability of these trends, assuming the macro remains unchanged into Q2 and beyond? Is there any inventory considerations to think about after the very strong first quarter? That's the first question on Vietnam.
Then the second one is just picking up on your closing comments there around the potential indirect impact from this period of flux. Could you perhaps provide a few examples as how Heineken as a management team, you're changing your approach to risk management to allow you to better manage through potential volatility?
Yeah, super good questions. Thank you. I'll take them in turns. First, as we said in our full-year outlook, Vietnam was an important indicator for us. In our full-year results, we already said that we were expecting a moderate Tet. We're pleased to see from the sell-in data that this was still a premium occasion. As you know, the market in recent years has seen a trend towards mainstream becoming more acceptable. What you really see in quarter one is that that premium is still very much top of mind of the consumer.
This is relevant. You have also noticed the growth of Heineken. This is taking, in some parts, let's call it the softness in Tiger, is being absorbed by an accelerated growth in Heineken. We talked about the Cool pack previously as well. We also see that on-trade is starting to stabilize. Both in terms of the competitiveness, the portfolio design that we put in place to maintain clear leadership in premium, as well as through our very portfolio start building positions in mainstream, which is very much regionally driven, is starting to pay effect. Larue Smooth is another very good example of that. Now, we want to be a bit cautious because these things are very complex and take time. We are definitely encouraged by two factors in quarter one results. Actually, three, if I may say. Starting with the market.
The market is stabilizing, and both channels are in growth. Second, premium is still alive and kicking, as seen from the Tet season. Third, we're making progress in building out the full position of our portfolio, although, again, I should say, this will take time. I do not want to, let's call it, exaggerate the impact that we've seen in quarter one. The early signs are healthy from a portfolio point of view. Again, I don't want to get carried away too soon, too quick. The last point is therefore linked to your sustainability. We really see that Vietnam this year, as you say, all intents and purposes is on the right trajectory, barring, of course, the impact of the indirect impacts on the macroeconomic environment, which at this moment in time, I do not know and do not want to comment on.
What is important to us is that our strategy works, and we will continue to drive that strategy. To your last point, there is no stock overhang in the post-Tet season. We have managed the Tet very responsibly and learned our lesson from two years ago. To your second question about the indirect impact and the volatility that we currently see in the world, it really is that we are, as a management team, much more agile in terms of the preparedness of risk identification as well as risk responses. We have really, in the past year and a half, started to shift from our own business risk factors to some macroeconomic risk factors that we then try to predict, anticipate, and find corresponding scenarios on. Africa is the easiest example because you have seen it in action.
We do this now more and more across the component parts of the world. Our risk management change has started to shift from the micro of our operations to the macro about the derived impact of what we see happening in this world. This leads to much more caution in investment, but also agility in investment decisions. We are able to move money around and really start to look a little bit further ahead about whether this is a right or not a right place to invest. That anticipation is probably the biggest change, together with the scenario planning that we have and can activate, probably in a three to six-month time frame. Now, this all sounds good, but with the risk factors that we see in today's world, you will understand that the impact that we can have only goes so far.
I'm sure that the people on the call realize that.
Thank you.
We have a question from Sanjeet Aujla of UBS. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Harold and Tristan. A couple from me, please. Can you just talk a little bit more about the retailer negotiations in Europe, how that has progressed through the quarter? Are there any signs of resolution there, or is this something that continues into Q2? My follow-up question is really on Mexico. It feels like the underlying category remains healthy despite what we've observed to be a lot of caution from other consumer companies in recent weeks. Can you just talk a little bit to what's driving the resilience of the beer category there? If anything has changed in your outlook.
Yeah. I'm just writing your question, Sanjeet, which is why I'm taking a second. Yeah, thank you.
First, retail in Europe. I do believe that also in the conference call that we had, when was it? A few weeks ago, we called that out. The situation in Europe is pretty tough, actually. We have spoken before about the consumer sentiment being relatively tough. We also have been very aware that a number of the, let's call it the trade negotiations, buying alliances or otherwise, have been quite stern. We also believe that this is part of business. Therefore, we do not want to make too big a point of this. It is an annual event. It is always occurring. The reason that we are calling it out is that we believe that as from 2024 and 2025, we still see in Europe some inflationary pressures.
As a result of that, we need to defend our position towards the business and also to make sure that on-trade, off-trade are being kept in proper balance. This is the total consumer base that we are spending time and trying to invest behind. We also spoke previously that pricing is necessary in order to bring investment back into the category. As you will see, last year as well as this year, we're investing in the beer category to bring consumers back to the franchise. That requires collaboration with the retailers. In their view, some of them were asking price deflation. We are in tough negotiations because we do not believe that that is fully warranted, simply because we want to invest in the category. We are close to resolving this with one or two outstanding discussions still ongoing. There will be some spillover in quarter two.
As we said, please do not read too much into this. It is just tougher than usual, what we have seen in the past five years. That is why we are calling it out. We do not want to make this an apology for our performance. I think it is just part of a quite stretched business situation that we are finding ourselves in, as does the retail in Europe. Maybe Mexico category health. It is a bit difficult to read what the underlying dynamics is on the beer category because, as you know, Easter is quite a big event in Mexico. What we did record is that the beer category in aggregate in quarter one was in slight decline. Now, how much of that is Easter phasing? How much of that is consumers still enjoying their beer?
I probably am able to give you a better view of that when we are closing quarter two. For now, I think as we see it, we do not see a steep drop-off in terms of consumption. We do note that the Mexican Bank is lowering GDP, and we know that GDP growth correlates to beer growth. We are a bit more cautious on the outlook, but we are not concerned about the outlook is probably where I would peg it, Sanjeet.
Very good. Thank you.
We have a question from Olivier Nicolaï of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, Harold and Tristan. Just two questions on my side. Just following up a bit on Europe and specifically on France. You mentioned short-term retail disruption and shipment phasing around customer negotiation. Will this continue into Q2?
Are you seeing any improvements already towards the end of the quarter or even current trading? That is the first question. Secondly, on the U.S., the market has been weak, but obviously, Heineken has been also losing share there. How do you think you can address this going forward? Is it a distribution issue, a marketing issue, or a brand portfolio issue? How do you assess the issue that Heineken is facing in the U.S., even though it is a small market for you?
Thank you, Olivier. Good to speak to you. First, let me indeed zoom in on France. Indeed, we mentioned in my script that it was Western Europe, but we all know on the call that France is particularly renowned for tough customer negotiations. You are right to single that one out. I believe that this is indeed short-term retail disruption.
As I just mentioned to Sanjeet, there will be some spillover probably into quarter two. Although, again, I repeat, I do not want to make too big a deal out of this because it is part of what we experience every year in terms of negotiation. A bit tougher this time, but let us not dwell on that for too long. Promo slots, are they, let us call it, permanent losses? We do not believe so. This is really part of doing the negotiations, and part of the negotiations and shaking hands are also about then to conclude on how to bring the category back to growth because ultimately, it is in our joint interest to grow the category and to service consumers at the same time. Again, I think it is a key point in quarter one. Some spillover may happen.
I think it's also important to emphasize, which I didn't do with Sanjeet, that our pricing was holding in Europe, which is what we believe in order to be able to invest in the category because in the end, growth matters. We are looking still at relative competitiveness of our portfolio compared to peer group companies. I just wanted to give you that additional context as well. Any concerns that we're outpricing ourselves are not justified. Maybe going into the U.S., where I don't fully agree with your conclusion, Olivier. The market has been weak. Yes, I agree. The market has been specifically weak also in quarter one. You will have seen many companies commenting about that.
I don't agree with your second part of the statement that Heineken has been underperforming for some time because although we see this as a strategic market where we still see more potential than what we currently realize, we have been holding share-ish, right? I think the mix that we want to play is really Heineken Dos Equis first, led by Heineken 0.0. There are some parts like Tecate that we are deliberately deprioritizing. I wouldn't want to call our relative performance in the U.S. necessarily a problem in its own right. We still have the ambition to do better in the U.S. That's also true.
Thank you very much.
Thanks.
We have a question from Richard Withagen of Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, Harold and Tristan. Two questions, please.
First of all, the 5% drop in Q1 volumes in Europe triggers the question on how profitability will develop in the region this year. I know there's obviously some phasing issues in Q1, but Harold, maybe you can discuss the main drivers that give you confidence that you can grow EBIT in Europe this year. The second question is on, obviously, the market environment remains very uncertain. What is the flexibility in terms of costs in case Heineken needs to protect profitability more than you foresee currently?
Yeah. Again, Richard, really good questions, and thanks for asking them. Indeed, quarter one was a bit tough, but as you rightly call out, we should not forget leap year last year and Easter phasing is also playing a part in Europe.
I do want to make sure that the 5% does not stick in your mind as an underlying performance. The profitability in the region, we're not disclosing profits for quarter one, but I think the region is doing a really good job in making sure that they invest where it matters. The callout in the U.K. is a good example, but also is trimming down investment and cost where the market reality calls for that. I do believe that the European region is actually quite agile in its management of its cost base in as far as it's possible. That gives me also confidence that the region is on the right trajectory to meet their business objectives this year.
I'm not in the habit of giving specific regional guidance, and I will not start today, but it is indeed the case that we ambition for Europe to grow as well as grow profitably. That is what they're still on track to deliver. Quarter two is an important proof point of that. Maybe good to wait a couple of months and see the evidence of that coming through. What is relevant is the market environment. The discussion that we have with our European team is that there are definitely pockets of growth that we can have in Europe. We still have an opportunity in 0.0. We still have an opportunity in our premium part of the portfolio. We still have an opportunity in fantastic local brands like Gallia in France or in Texels in the Netherlands. That's what we're investing behind.
We also see that the consumer is willing to uptrade and experiment. This is how we ambition to growth in Europe. In absolute volume growth, it will relatively be low, but the opportunity in pockets of success, whether it is geography or whether it is premium and innovation, will still be there. That is how we are really working to unlock that potential, but in a profitable way. To your second question, what levers do we have to pull? I spoke previously also about a significant cost transformation program in Europe, partly about brewery optimization, transport planning across operating companies, for instance, with the addition of AI. More and more, we have full visibility of the pipeline that also in Europe, there is more still, let's call it cost performance management to be done. That gives us ammunition for growth, but also ammunition for profit expansion.
Thank you, Richard.
Thanks, Harold. Thank you.
We have a question from Andrea Pistacchi of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Y es, hi, Harold and Tristan. Two questions, please, on two different markets. First on South Africa, which has been quite challenging for you in beer and now even, I think, the non-beer part of the business, so they still had a softer quarter. You've said clearly that you've had a difficult integration, but what do you think really hasn't worked here and how do you change this and how long do you think turnaround in South Africa may take? The second question is actually on India, which on the contrary is doing very, very well. Strong price mix in India. I think you probably had 7%, 8%, 9% price mix there.
To what extent was this price increases versus mix as you're really starting to do a lot more on the portfolio premiumization there and how sustainable is this sort of growth in India, this mix you're getting in India? Thank you.
Yeah, Andrea, excellent questions, by the way. Let me just be frank about our performance in South Africa, but I should start with saying, look, we're still fully standing behind the strategic commitment that we've made to build a Heineken Beverages champion in Southern Africa. What is also quite obvious is that the time it takes to unlock that full potential is longer than what we anticipated. What hasn't worked is really a couple of aspects. The first one is, of course, the time it took to get the approvals and the integration done allowed AB InBev to really step up their competitive game.
I mentioned that many times before on the calls, so I'm not disclosing anything new, but they are really a phenomenal competitor in South Africa, I have to admit. That is a big battle, but we're ready to take it. The second one is the portfolio design and our understanding of the portfolio is something that we're learning and we have some really good things that we see. Bernini is doing very well. We have got great new variants. We have a successful implementation of the Heineken RGB bottle, but there are also some things that we are adjusting and learning as we go. Particularly the wine business is a very different thing for us to get to learn. The price competition in that category has proven to be quite remarkable. That is something that we're adjusting to. How long will it take?
Frankly, I think we need to take this step by step. Let me put that into context. I still believe that this year will be better than last year. Our teams are confirming that. Last year was better than the year before. Every year is a step forward. It's not a step back, but it will take longer to fully materialize to its fullest promise. Frankly, we are going to take the time and the investment necessary because simply the attractiveness of the market and the opportunity there is too big not to go after. Maybe that puts it into the relative context. Please be patient with us, but we are making progress. On India, I think you're right. It has been a very good performance and we're happy with our business there. It's important to differentiate the price mix elements of that.
Pricing, as you know, in India is very often regulated by state and requires long negotiations and explanations to get that right. The pricing component that we got in India was low single digit. It was still a few percentage, but low single digit. The mix component was much larger and that really worked in our favor. What you will also have heard me talk about is that we are becoming more assertive as a business to really drive the right portfolio with the right consumer base, but also the right authorities engagement strategy to create healthy business platforms, but that is a state-by-state affair. That is something that we're working on. I am increasingly confident that that will last going forward. I'm happy with our India performance.
Thanks, Andrea.
Thank you.
We have a question from Chris Pitcher of Redburn Atlantic. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Harold. Thank you, Tristan. Can I follow up on South Africa, please? Harold, you mentioned that you expect this year to be better than last year and last year was better than the year before. If I look at the revenue development in Q1, I mean, is the exit of the five-liter wine enough to get your price mix up into the high single digit? Revenues are flat. When you talk about better this year, are you talking more about perhaps profitability that you can see a clear path in the next 12 to 18 months for getting South Africa to break even? Maybe as a follow-on from that, I mean, in terms of running a multi-beverage business, I mean, it's a unique market in that context of scale. Does it put you off following this model elsewhere?
I mean, you mentioned wine being more complicated. I mean, it's a very different category to be in altogether. I mean, as a test case, does this put you off this model elsewhere? Thanks.
Let me reserve the last question for last. Chris, indeed, we're trying to balance our portfolio in wine towards growth and consumer occasions versus profitability. It takes time to get that right, apparently. It is more the three-liter than the five-liter, just as a point of detail. I think this is not as easy as it seems. We are noticing that the price sensitivity of the consumer, particularly when low-price competition is coming in, is a science that we don't fully master at this moment in time. I would divert the question or further follow-up to the IR team because I'm going there in two or three weeks.
After that, I'll give you a lot more flavor, but I don't think that is appropriate to do that on this call. To your broader question, what do you define as better? It's a good question. For us, better means better over time. It means we have to master a broader portfolio. We have to start getting quality growth in that portfolio, and we have to do that in a profitable and sustainable way. That includes at some point in time in the segments that we choose to play to grow market share. That's what I believe better over time. I think out of this hierarchy of priorities, when I call this year will be better than last, I am more confident on growth and profit than I am on market share. That will take some time to build.
Yeah, forgive me for being so direct on this call, but I also think that you're rightly asking the question, and I want to give the honest answer to that so you can manage expectations going forward. Now, does it put us off?
Hell no.
We are a business of 160 years, and I think we really, really are focused on consumer needs, and we have been an entrepreneurial company for a very long time. Does that mean that you should deduct from this that we very quickly go into non-beer categories elsewhere? Probably also not. It is probably the right balance, but we are led by opportunities, consumers, and we have a long-term horizon, as you know. Let's learn. We're also now introducing the Heineken beverage portfolio in Nigeria and some other places in Africa, and we see some emerging success on a small scale.
Give us also time to learn and to expand, but ultimately, we're here to service consumers, beer foremost, but not exclusively.
Thank you, Harold. Very clear.
Thank you.
We have a question from Carlos Laboy of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you, Harold and Tristan. Two questions. One Brazil, one Mexico. On Brazil, can you give us more detail on the share of value trends of Amstel and Heineken in Brazil? As you look at 2025, can you comment on mix benefits that you might expect from your refillable efforts and revenue management in Brazil as well? On Mexico, just if you could give us an update on your route to market evolution, particularly in southern Mexico, where I know you're experimenting with the Coke bottlers there. If there's any discernible benefits coming from that yet?
Yeah.
Hey, Carlos, good to hear you on the call. It's been a long time since we saw each other and spoke. Starting with Brazil, I'm pleased that the audience is not picking up on our volume growth because the three messages I want to give on Brazil is that the market is in growth. Our volume is a consequence of sell-in, sell-out versus shipments, Easter and pricing related. Underneath, to your point, is we're actually continuing to see a good share trajectory, predominantly led by Heineken and Amstel. Our portfolio strategy, including mix, as you rightly point out, continues to work. I know there is also a slumbering question about price competitiveness in the market and do we see healthy levels of, let's call it competitiveness, but not price reductions being put in the market. I think the reality is yes.
We see, importantly, the premium part of the market is still what drives the market growth. I continue to reiterate this because our portfolio strategy is conducive to that. Frankly, we are driving, together with one other, that conversion into premium growth. We believe that the market growth is healthy. Within that, our market share position, I'm not sure that we explained that, but it was a very solid market share progress that we've seen is actually spearheading that, first led by Heineken and then led by Amstel. As a consequence of that, the economy part of the portfolio is continuing to bleed a little bit in our sense, but we don't want to divert from our portfolio strategy as we had. The negative impact of that economy loss is also starting to get less. That's a bit the portfolio composition in Brazil.
To your point on mixed benefits from own route to market and the growth of RGB, that is continuing. That adds about, in terms of RGB component, about 500 basis points on an annual basis is where we see the growth in RGB in our portfolio as a consequence of that. That helps, of course, the gross margin mix benefit from it. To your point in Mexico, honestly, Carlos, we can spend a lot of time on it, but it's not yet large enough to warrant that time. We are really trying to develop that growth part of the south of Mexico, but it might be good to be a bit more patient, and I'll give you a bit more color at half year. At the moment, it's not relevant enough for this quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos.
Our next question is from Simon Hales of Citi. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, all. Harold, I wanted to just ask you a little bit about Nigeria to start with, particularly the strong revenue per hectoliter performance there in the quarter. I mean, you called out in your prepared remarks, obviously, the premiumization you're seeing. I don't know if you can give us a split of what was premiumization, what was price that drove that strong performance, and how we should think about that as we move forward into Q2 and beyond. Secondly, when it comes to the 4%-8% organic EBIT guidance for the full year, should we think about any particular phasing of that between H1 and H2?
I ask the question in part because I imagine the direct impact you'll see from the tariff situation as it stands probably is a little bit more H2-weighted, given I assume you've shipped some products into bonded warehouses in the U.S.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have to laugh because, yes, we did ship some extra volume to be ready for that. Also, let's not get too carried away. It was a nice action for us to take, but it will not be a meaningful contribution to the mitigation, unfortunately. Beer expires, as you know. First, on Nigeria, I think the team in Nigeria is really getting quite accustomed to managing the volatility in Nigeria.
We explained before as well that, let's call it the collaboration with the banks, the governments, in order to exchange views about the stability of the economy, how to avoid that we are, in a way, fueling inflation, what is the outlook on currency availability. I do believe that there is a strong collaboration that our Nigeria team has to operate in that environment. In the end, however, customer decides pricing. It does mean that the revenue per hectoliter increases that we have are very much informed by input cost inflation and currency devaluations. To that extent, we do believe that the pricing that you currently see will tail off in the second half of the year because the currency after large devaluation has become a bit more stable.
As you know, we've actually taken 14 price increases last year in order to lead consumers up as far as the outlets let us. I do think that there's some phasing component in terms of pricing half one, half two. What is all the more relevant is the point that you're making, Simon, about the mix management because we are very pleased that in an environment where there is now a bit more macroeconomic stability, but not yet macroeconomic recovery, just to call that out, it's stable but not recovering, we do see that consumers are willing to spend and also uptrade. We are therefore very careful with our portfolio design region by region to make sure that we don't disrupt the mix management, but also the volume recovery that we see in Nigeria.
I commented in quarter four last year that our volumes in quarter four Nigeria were a bit more positive than we expected. We also see this year in the first quarter relatively solid growth in Nigeria, but we do not want to call too soon that this is now back on track. It is almost like a careful dance that we are doing in Nigeria. Please do not pencil in yet that this is now behind us. It is a bit too early to say. On your question on 4%-8% guidance and the breakdown of half one, half two, what we are really aiming for also to be a bit more, let us call it responsive to look at unforeseen circumstances, is to have a little bit of flexibility around delivering half one in line with our full year outlook guidance as well as half two.
Now, I cannot be too precise about this because, hey, the world is every day a little bit different today, but you shouldn't find a huge queue, half one, half two. That's what we're aiming for.
Very clear. Thanks so much.
Thanks, Simon.
Our last question comes from the line of Trevor Stirling of Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi, Harold. I guess two questions for me. One big picture and one more detailed. Big picture one, Harold, is do you reflect where we are today compared to where we were three months ago? What has surprised you positively in terms of either the quarterly performance or the outlook? What has surprised you negatively? The detailed question is, if I look at the beer performance you broke down by subsector, total beer was down two, mainstream flattish, premium up 1.8%, Heineken up 4.6%.
Is it right then to say that the weakness must have been primarily on the economy beer? Maybe just give a little bit of color about which countries had that significant weakness on the economy beer.
Sure. Trevor, if you allow me, I'll end on the high. I'll take your question in reverse order. The weakness in the economy brand, as I tried to indicate, was predominantly Brazil. As I said, the drop-off is a little bit less than what we called out last year because one of our lower margin competitors has indeed increased prices. We said we would be only selective in where we would compete because there's no point in us to change our portfolio strategy. It doesn't mean that the economy part of the portfolio was still not in decline. That is the most important reason.
We also see a bit in Europe, surprisingly enough, because we talked previously also that the consumer in Europe is really still conducive to premium and is still conducive to experiment and try new brands and portfolio. You also see that in own label. Own label in Europe is not growing. That is where we see that portfolio mix coming in. Predominantly Brazil, a little bit of Europe to answer that question. If I reflect on three months ago and maybe also a little bit further out, let me start with the negatives. I still think that the negative surprise to us was clearly the U.S. What we currently see is the weakness of the U.S. consumer, particularly the Latin American consumer, for a variety of reasons, actually is a bit concerning. We do see the market really taking an impact there.
I believe one of our peer group companies has also called that out. The second one is we had hoped to get some more positive momentum in Europe, both in terms of the on-trade as well as in terms of the pricing negotiation to conclude that earlier. That is something that we did not fully anticipate in our plans. On the positives, we talked about it, Vietnam, India, some African markets doing a little bit better than what we had hoped for, and long may it continue. Let me close off with something that is perhaps not related to business performance, but is related to culture and practices. We spoke in the full year results that we were preparing for scenarios given the uncertainty of the world.
I think we have, over the past year, become much better to read external data points, to build that in our scenarios, to go through exercises to, if this happens, what do we do? That the business is now actually pretty calm and clear in how to navigate. Now, all of that is relative. Of course, let me just close by saying we know on what we act today, and that's also how we wrote our outlook statement. We all can read the newspapers that that predictability is not fully there at this moment in time, but I'm actually pretty proud of how the business is navigating and how we're able to shuffle money around to take opportunities where they arise and adjust where they do not arise. That, I think, is building some resilience in our business. Thank you for that question, Trevor.
Super. Thank you very much, Harold.
Thank you. With that. Indeed. I wanted to thank the audience. Indeed.
Thank you, Marie.
Thank you. I hope we're now able to do something.
Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.