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During 2022, we accelerated the deployment of our EverGreen strategy, designed to future-proof the company and deliver superior, balanced growth in a fast-changing world. Our dream is to shape the future of beer and beyond to win the hearts of consumers. We are also shaping the future with our ambition to become the best digitally connected brewer, raising the bar on sustainability and responsibility and evolving our culture, operating model and capabilities. At the same time, we are stepping up on productivity to fund the investments required and improve profitability and capital efficiency.

SHAPE THE FUTURE OF BEER AND BEYOND

Superior and balanced growth

Our superior and balanced growth ambition is grounded in our advantaged geographic footprint, our ability to scale strong premium beer brands, including non-alcoholic variants, and in developing winning beverage propositions in fast-growing segments.

Revenue for the full year 2022 was €34,676 million (2021: 26,583 million). Net revenue (beia) increased by 21.2% organically, with total consolidated volume growing by 6.4% and net revenue (beia) per hectolitre up 13.9%. The underlying price-mix on a constant geographic basis was up 14.3%, driven by pricing for inflation and by premiumisation. All regions contributed with double-digit organic growth. Currency translation positively impacted net revenue (beia) by €1,582 million or 7.2%, mainly driven by the Mexican Peso, Brazilian Real, Vietnamese Dong and the US Dollar. Consolidation changes positively impacted net revenue (beia) by €570 million or 2.6%, mainly from the consolidation of United Breweries Limited (UBL) in India.

Beer volume grew 6.9% organically for the full year and was ahead of 2019 by 2.7% on an organic basis. The growth was led by the sharp recovery of Asia Pacific in the second half of the year, the reopening of the on-trade in Europe in the first half following the COVID-related restrictions of last year and continued growth in the Americas and Africa, Middle East & Eastern Europe regions.

In the fourth quarter, net revenue (beia) grew organically by 17.4%, with double-digit growth across all regions. Total consolidated volume grew 3.0% and net revenue (beia) per hectolitre was up 14.0%. Price-mix on a constant geographic basis was up 14.5%, again driven by pricing and premiumisation. Beer volume grew 3.5%, driven by Asia Pacific and continued growth in Europe, more than offsetting lower volume in other regions.

Driving premiumisation at scale, led by Heineken^®

Premium beer volume grew 11.4% versus last year and came 15.6% ahead of 2019, organically. Our premium brands outperformed the total portfolio in the majority of our markets and accounted for more than half of our total organic growth in beer volume in 2022.

This growth is led by Heineken^®, up 12.5% versus last year (14.5% excluding Russia) and 31.5% relative to 2019, significantly outperforming the total beer market. The growth was broad-based with more than 50 markets growing double-digits in 2022. The strong growth was led by Heineken^® Original, bolstered by the remarkable performance of its line extensions. Heineken^® Silver more than doubled its volume, driven by excellent performances in Vietnam and China and its global rollout, reaching 28 markets in total by the end of 2022.

Heineken^® connects with millions of consumers every year with world-class campaigns and sponsorships to share our brand DNA in a meaningful way to spark growth, and to contribute to our sustainability goals and responsibility initiatives. In 2022, we launched the ‘Cheers to All Fans’ campaign, tackling gender bias affecting football's players and fans. 2022 was Heineken^®’s first year as a leading sponsor of the UEFA Women’s EUROs, with the objective to become the most inclusive sponsor of the tournament.

We continued to successfully premiumise at scale via our international brands portfolio, complementing Heineken^® by connecting with an even more diverse range of consumer needs. Amstel grew volume in the mid-twenties, with more than 15 markets growing double-digits, with a particularly strong performance in Brazil and continued momentum behind Amstel Ultra. Birra Moretti grew in the mid-teens versus last year, sharing the true taste of Italy across Europe, with outstanding growth in the Netherlands, Serbia, Romania, Switzerland and Ireland. In the UK, Birra Moretti more than doubled its volume versus 2019 and became the market leader of the premium segment by value. 2022 was the year of the Tiger; our brand roared back to volume growth of more than 40%, driven by the recovery in Southeast Asia, the success of Tiger Crystal and continued growth in Nigeria and Brazil.

Pioneer choice in low & no-alcohol

We believe in empowering consumers seeking to enjoy a lower or no-alcohol-content beverage by ensuring there is always a choice – everywhere and on any occasion. Meeting this consumer need, our Low & No-Alcohol (LONO) portfolio grew by low-single-digit as continued momentum in the majority of our markets was partially offset by declines in Egypt, Russia and Poland. Our non-alcoholic beer and cider portfolio grew by mid-single-digit, led by the growth of Heineken^® 0.0 in the low-teens in Europe and the Americas regions.

We continued to introduce consumer-inspired innovations to enhance our non-alcoholic beer and cider portfolio. For example, in the United States, Lagunitas launched Hoppy Refresher, an adult beverage proposition of hop-infused sparkling water that can compete with carbonated soft drinks. In Nigeria, we launched ZAGG, a malt-based energy drink, entering a new category in Nigeria with potential to scale beyond within the Region. In Mexico, we are currently introducing Tecate 0.0, a non-alcoholic variant to our second largest brand globally by volume, aiming to counter the stigma that beer cannot be enjoyed during mid-day meal occasions.

Explore beyond beer

As we expand our view of consumer demand, we see opportunities beyond beer for flavoured, innovative, natural and moderate propositions leveraging our industrial and route to market base. We are leveraging our scale as the second largest player in this segment outside of the United States to explore further this consumer space. Our overall volume of flavoured beer and beyond beer alcoholic propositions grew by a mid-single-digit to 12.9 million hectolitres (2021: 12.3 million hectolitres).

Desperados is the leading "spirit beer" for high energy occasions with a presence in more than 80 countries. It continued its growth momentum in 2022, doubling its volume in Nigeria, with continued growth in Europe (particularly in Germany, the UK, Spain and France) and boosted by Desperados cocktail inspired line extensions and Virgin 0.0.

We expanded our global leadership position in Cider. Global volume grew by a low-single-digit to 5.0 million hectolitres (2021: 4.9 million), mainly driven by the strong growth of Strongbow in South Africa. We launched Strongbow Ultra, a low-calorie, low-carb and natural proposition to renovate the brand and the overall cider category with strong early results. In the UK, Strongbow Ultra Dark Fruit reached c.70% of the size of the total hard seltzer category in its first year of launch.

In Mexico, we launched Sol Mangoyada, further strengthening our leadership position in beyond beer. In the United States, building on the success of Dos Equis Lime and Salt around rituals that consumers follow, we launched Dos Equis Classic Lime Margarita.

Our advantaged footprint

We continue to develop and expand our geographical and portfolio footprint to enhance our long-term, sustained growth advantage.

Between 18 and 24 January 2023 the Competition Tribunal of South Africa held the hearings related to the transaction with Distell Group Holdings Limited and Namibia Breweries Limited, and we are awaiting their final decision. We remain very excited with the opportunity to bring together strong businesses to create a regional beverage champion, and we are committed to being a strong partner for growth and to make a positive impact in the communities in which we operate. We continue to expect the transaction to close in the coming months.

We continue to make progress to transfer the ownership of our business in Russia whilst dealing with frequently changing regulations. We remain optimistic in our ability to reach an agreement in the coming months. Based on our current assessment, an impairment of €88 million is recorded for the period ended 31 December 2022. See page 14 for more details.

On 19 October 2022, we acquired 28.2% of the shares of Grupa Zywiec (GZ) and, on 20 December 2022, concluded a mandatory tender bid for the remaining 6.6% of the shares. On 19 January 2023, we acquired the remaining shares of GZ through a squeeze-out process, becoming the sole owner of the company. GZ has filed an application to delist from the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

BECOME THE BEST-CONNECTED BREWER

HEINEKEN wants to become the best-connected, most relevant brewer for customers living in the digital age. To achieve this, we are digitally transforming our business and modernising our technology landscape at the same time.

Digitise our route-to-consumer

We continue to deploy our business-to-business digital (eB2B) platforms, supported by the eBusiness team, which is driving this capability globally. By the end of 2022, the platforms captured €9.2 billion in gross merchandise value, 2.5x the value of last year. We now connect more than half a million customers, over 50% more than last year. The growth was driven by Vietnam, Nigeria, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Ireland, France, Italy and Cambodia.

The digitisation of customer relationships unlocks new growth with more and better services and data insights, increasing sales and productivity. For example, with AIDDA, an artificial intelligence application, we support our sales representatives to help our customers grow, making our sales organisation more effective and efficient.

We will start migrating our eB2B platforms under a single brand name and identity: eazle, business made easy. The transition will enable better features at scale resulting in improved customer experience with increased efficiency, helping them to grow their business.

FUND THE GROWTH, FUEL THE PROFIT

Our growth algorithm aims to deliver superior, balanced growth enabled by incremental investments behind the power of our brands, digital transformation, capabilities and sustainability objectives. We are bringing balance to our growth, investing behind the power of our brands which enables us to price responsibly. To fund the growth and offset inflationary pressures, we are structurally addressing our cost base and building a cost-conscious culture. We are embedding this into an ongoing continuum of productivity improvements to fuel profit growth ahead of revenue growth over time.

During 2022, we made significant progress in the delivery of our productivity programme, targeting €2 billion of structural gross savings by 2023, relative to our cost base of 2019. By the end of 2022, we captured €1.7 billion of these gross savings and are well on track to deliver ahead of our target in 2023.

We are improving our performance on cost and embedding cost management in the capabilities of the organisation. Our teams are advancing thousands of initiatives across all our operating companies and the head office. We are also accelerating large-scale transformation programmes, such as the transition to a network model for our supply chain in Europe. These achievements gave us the confidence to declare our new ambition to deliver ongoing productivity gains of €400 million year on year.

We continued to invest in our business and in addition, we reversed the significant cost mitigation actions undertaken in 2021 to partially offset the financial impact of COVID-related restrictions. Last year, these represented a reduction of expenses (beia) of circa €0.5 billion for the full year relative to 2019.

Operating profit (beia) grew 24.0% organically driven by the volume recovery in Asia Pacific and Europe, pricing for inflation, premiumisation and the delivery of our productivity programme, partially offset by inflationary pressures in our cost base and incremental investments behind our growth agenda. Currency translation positively impacted operating profit (beia) by €258 million, or 7.6%, mainly driven by the Mexican Peso, Vietnamese Dong and Brazilian Real. Operating profit declined by 4.5% as the strong profit recovery this year was offset by lower exceptional gains, which in the previous year included the €1.3 billion remeasurement to fair value of the previously held equity interest in United Breweries (UBL) in India.

Net profit (beia) grew 30.7% organically to €2,836 million (2021: €2,041 million), ahead of the growth in operating profit (beia) due to a lower effective tax rate. Currency translation positively impacted net profit (beia) by €198 million or 9.7%, driven mainly by the Mexican Peso, Vietnamese Dong and Brazilian Real. Net profit after exceptional items and amortisation of acquisition-related intangibles was €2,682 million (2021: €3,324 million), lower than last year due to the exceptional gains in 2021 as explained above.

For more details, please refer to the Financial Review.

RAISE THE BAR ON SUSTAINABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY

Brew a Better World is our 2030 strategy to drive progress towards a net zero, fairer and more balanced world. We are making good progress across all three pillars and are building executional momentum to deliver our ambitions.

Environmental: Path to net zero impact

Our ambition is to reach net zero carbon emissions across our value chain by 2040, with an intermediate 2030 goal to reach net zero in scope 1 and 2, reduce our emissions in scope 3 by 21%, and across our value chain (scope 1, 2 and 3) by 30%. Since 2018, we have reduced our absolute carbon emissions in scope 1 and 2 by 18% (2021: 16%). We also increased the percentage of combined renewable energy to 37% (2021: 27%). We are driving progress in scope 3 by engaging our top packaging, cooling and raw material partners globally to set science-based targets and unlock low-carbon solutions. We also achieved an “A” score for Climate from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in 2022.

We continue to focus on healthy watersheds via water efficiency, water circularity and water balancing. Our 2030 ambition is to reduce water usage to 2.6 hectolitre per hectolitre (hl/hl) in water-stressed areas and 2.9 hl/hl worldwide. In 2022, we reached 3.0 hl/hl and 3.3 hl/hl (2021: 3.1 and 3.4), respectively. 26 of our 31 sites in water-stressed areas have begun watershed protection programmes and 29% of these sites are fully balanced. 97% of our total wastewater volume is now treated before discharge.

When it comes to circularity, more than 75% of our production sites are now landfill-free, meaning 99% of our total waste volume globally was reused or recycled in 2022.

Social: Path to an inclusive, fair and equitable world

We are making progress when it comes to gender diversity. Over the last 5 years, we increased the percentage of senior management positions held by women from 19% to 27% (2021: 25%). Our ambition is to achieve 30% by 2025 and 40% by 2030 on the path to gender balance.

We also aim for equal pay for equal work between female and male colleagues and want to ensure that all employees worldwide earn at least a fair wage by 2023. By the end of 2022, 100% of operating companies have been assessed on equal pay and have detailed action plans to drive year-on-year progress. Regarding fair wage, 100% of operating companies have been assessed and over 99% of direct employees earn at least a fair wage, as defined by the Fair Wage Network.¹

As part of our ambition to create a positive impact in our communities, we reached our annual target of having a social impact initiative in place in 100% of our in-scope markets. We also increased the volume of locally sourced agricultural raw materials in Africa by 26% compared to a 2020 baseline, meaning we are halfway to our goal of 50% by 2025.

¹ A fair wage is often higher than the minimum wage and should be sufficient for a decent standard of living, covering the basic needs for the employee and their family: from food, housing and education to healthcare, transportation and some discretionary income and savings. Data on fair wages is obtained from the Fair Wage Network.

Responsible: Path to moderate and no harmful use

Our ambition is to make 0.0 alcohol options available for consumers everywhere so that there is always a choice. Heineken^® 0.0 is now available in close to 110 markets and, by 2023, we aim for a zero-alcohol option to be available for at least two strategic brands in the majority of our operating companies, accounting for 90% of our business by volume. By the end of 2022, we were at 46% (2021: 43%).

We continue to use the power of our flagship brand to advance responsible consumption and make moderation cool. In 2022, our operating companies invested over 10% of Heineken^® media spend reaching at least 1.2 billion unique consumers worldwide.

In addition to this, 100% of our in-scope markets had a partnership with governments and society to address alcohol-related harm.

Governance

In 2022, we continued to raise the bar on our ways of working, governance and transparent reporting. Given the importance of sustainability and responsibility for long-term value creation:

• We introduced three ESG metrics in our long-term incentive plan for senior managers, representing 25% of total remuneration. This proposal was approved for the Executive Board at the 2022 AGM in April;

• We further integrated sustainability & responsibility into our existing planning processes, including ring-fencing the required investments;

• We are enhancing our reporting capabilities to meet emerging requirements such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). We also completed our first TCFD analysis and the outcomes are included in the Annual Report.

UNLOCKING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF OUR PEOPLE AND ORGANISATION

Critical to the success of our multi-year EverGreen strategy is the evolution of our culture. Since the launch of EverGreen, we have been focused on this shift towards disciplined entrepreneurship with more agility, external focus, and clear accountability. Throughout the organisation, we have redesigned processes to facilitate horizontal learning and codified new behaviours that support EverGreen in our ambition to shape the future of beer and beyond.

Our Employee Engagement scores rank in the top quartile of the benchmark of high performing companies and we aspire to maintain this. In 2022, we scored even higher whilst our teams were dealing with uncertainty and change, a clear sign of the strength and commitment of our people.

On 30 November 2022, ahead of our Capital Markets Event, we reconfirmed our guidance to our outlook statements. These expectations remain unchanged and are included here as a reminder with further details.

For 2023, we expect operating profit (beia) to grow organically mid- to high-single-digit, subject to any significant unforeseen macroeconomic and geopolitical developments. This outlook is based on continued progress on EverGreen, a challenging global economic environment and lower consumer confidence in certain markets.

We expect further progress towards building great brands, our digital route to consumer, strategic capabilities and our Brew a Better World activities with commensurate investments. We also expect stable to modestly growing volume, increasing in developing markets and declining in Europe. We will continue the discipline to price responsibly as per local market conditions, aiming to cover most of the absolute impact of inflation in our cost base. We anticipate an increase in our input costs in the high teens per hectolitre and significantly higher energy costs, particularly in Europe. We will deliver on our gross savings ahead of the €2 billion target relative to the cost base of 2019, including an increased ambition of savings in Europe. Overall as a result, net revenue (beia) will grow organically ahead of operating profit (beia). Due to the phasing of marketing and selling expenses and input cost pressures, the operating profit (beia) organic growth will be skewed towards the second half.

We also expect in 2023 an average effective interest rate (beia) of around 3.1% (2022: 2.8%); an effective tax rate (beia) of around 27% (2022: 27.7%) and a significant increase in other net finance expenses, driven by the expected impact from foreign currencies in some emerging markets. As a result, net profit (beia) is expected to grow organically in line or below the operating profit (beia).

Finally, we expect investments in capital expenditure related to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets to amount to c.9% of net revenue (beia) (2022: c.7%)

The Heineken N.V. dividend policy is to pay a ratio of 30% to 40% of full year net profit (beia). For 2022, a total cash dividend of €1.73 per share, representing an increase of 40% (2021: €1.24), and a payout ratio of 35.1%, in the middle of the range of our policy, will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting on 20 April 2023 ("2023 AGM"). If approved, a final dividend of €1.23 per share will be paid on 2 May 2023, as an interim dividend of €0.50 per share was paid on 11 August 2022. The payment will be subject to a 15% Dutch withholding tax. The ex-dividend date for Heineken N.V. shares will be 24 April 2023.

The translational currency impact for 2022 was positive, amounting to €1,582 million on net revenue (beia), €258 million at operating profit (beia) and €198 million at net profit (beia).

Applying spot rates as of 13 February 2023 to the 2022 financial results as a base, the calculated currency translational impact would be negative, approximately €560 million in net revenue (beia), €80 million at operating profit (beia), and €40 million at net profit (beia).

On 20 December 2022, HEINEKEN announced the nomination of Mrs. Beatriz Pardo and Mr. Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh for appointment as members of the Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) on 20 April 2023 for a four-year term.

Mrs. Beatriz Pardo, a Spanish national, is Vice President General Manager of Starbucks Reserve in the United States at the Starbucks Coffee Company. She joined Starbucks in 2018 from Grupo Vips where she was Division CEO. Prior to this, Mrs. Pardo held executive positions in Carrefour, Canelafoods and Monitor Deloitte. During her international career, she built up extensive experience in brand strategy, retail concept innovation and operations. She graduated in Economics and Business Administration from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas of Madrid.

Mr. Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh, a Dutch national, currently serves as chairman of the Supervisory Board of BE Semiconductor Industries (until its AGM in April 2023). He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of ING and vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board of HAL Holding. He is a lawyer and was partner at the law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. He was also Chief Corporate Governance Counsel and member of the Executive Board of Royal Ahold. He has vast expertise in corporate governance, corporate law and sustainability. He holds a master’s degree in law from Utrecht University.

Furthermore, non-binding nominations for the reappointment of Mr. Michel de Carvalho and Mrs. Rosemary Ripley for a period of four years shall be submitted to the AGM on 20 April 2023 for approval. Mrs. Ingrid–Helen Arnold’s term at the Supervisory Board will end at the AGM. The Supervisory Board is grateful for Mrs. Arnold’s commitment and contributions to the Supervisory Board and its Audit Committee over the past years.

HEINEKEN will host an analyst and investor video webcast about its 2022 FY results at 14:00 CET/ 13:00 GMT/ 08.00 EST. The live video webcast will be accessible via the company’s website: https://www.theheinekencompany.com/investors/results-reports-webcasts-and-presentations.

An audio replay service will also be made available after the webcast at the above web address. Analysts and investors can dial-in using the following telephone numbers:

Editorial information:
HEINEKEN is the world's most international brewer. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium and non-alcoholic beer and cider brands. Led by the Heineken® brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. With HEINEKEN’s over 85,000 employees, we brew the joy of true togetherness to inspire a better world. Our dream is to shape the future of beer and beyond to win the hearts of consumers. We are committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through "Brew a Better World", sustainability is embedded in the business. HEINEKEN has a well-balanced geographic footprint with leadership positions in both developed and developing markets. We operate breweries, malteries, cider plants and other production facilities in more than 70 countries. Most recent information is available on our Company's website and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

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Disclaimer:
This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions with regard to the financial position and results of HEINEKEN’s activities, anticipated developments and other factors. All statements other than statements of historical facts are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements also include, but are not limited to, statements and information in HEINEKEN’s non-financial reporting, such as HEINEKEN’s emissions reduction and other climate change related matters (including actions, potential impacts and risks associated therewith). These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “aim”, “ambition”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “goals”, “intend”, “may”, “milestones”, “objectives”, “outlook”, “plan”, “probably”, “project”, “risks”, “schedule”, “seek”, “should”, “target”, “will” and similar terms and phrases. These forward-looking statements, while based on management's current expectations and assumptions, are not guarantees of future performance since they are subject to numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may change over time, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Many of these risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond HEINEKEN’s ability to control or estimate precisely, such as but not limited to future market and economic conditions, the behaviour of other market participants, changes in consumer preferences, the ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and achieve anticipated synergies, costs of raw materials and other goods and services, interest-rate and exchange-rate fluctuations, changes in tax rates, changes in law, environmental and physical risks, change in pension costs, the actions of government regulators and weather conditions. These and other risk factors are detailed in HEINEKEN’s publicly filed annual reports. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only of the date of this press release. HEINEKEN assumes no duty to and does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Market share estimates contained in this press release are based on outside sources, such as specialised research institutes, in combination with management estimates.

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