Molson Coors profit shrinks nearly 41% because of coronavirus lockdowns

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Molson Coors Beverage Co. beat expectations even though COVID-19 lockdowns caused its net income and sales to plunge in its most recent quarter.

The Montreal-based company, which reports in U.S. dollars, says its net income decreased nearly 41 per cent in the second quarter to US$195-million.

That equalled 90 cents a share for the three months ended June 30, down from US$1.52 a share of US$329.4-million in the second quarter of 2019.

Excluding one-time items, underlying net income increased 2.3 per cent to US$337.3 million or US$1.55 a share, compared with US$329.6-million or US$1.52 per share a year earlier.

Revenues fell 15.1 per cent to US$2.5-billion, from US$2.95-billion in the prior year’s quarter, with most sales coming from retail locations rather than bars and restaurants.

Molson Coors was expected to report 68 US cents a share in adjusted profits on US$2.45-billion in revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

“As expected, we experienced a significant adverse volume impact in the second quarter of 2020 resulting from the closure of the on-premise channel in nearly all of our markets for most of the quarter,” chief executive Gavin Hattersley stated.

Molson said it provided about US$16-million in “thank you” pay for some essential North American brewery employees that ended in the quarter as well as a paid leave policy and voluntary paid leave.

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