News Molson Coors has Super Strong Quarter

Domestic sales up 3.0 percent – Blue Moon shows double-digit increase

Molson Coors Brewing Co., second-quarter earnings quadrupled its second quarter earnings over the same period last year. The company attributed the sharp rise in revenue to a Canadian income tax rate reductions, solid sales volume growth and cost savings initiatives.

Net income increased to $156.2 million, or $1.81 per share, from $38.5 million, or 45 cents per share, a year ago.

Sales of $1.58 billion increased 2.3 percent from $1.55 billion last year, as sales volume also edged up 2.3 percent to 11.4 million barrels.

In the U.S. market, sales volume and net sales increased 1.5 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively, from the second quarter a year ago. Sales to retail increased 2.3 percent during the quarter compared to the same period in 2005, driven largely by a low single- digit increase in Coors Light volume, a high single-digit increase in Keystone Light and a strong double-digit increase in Blue Moon. Excluding the company’s Caribbean business, which suffered from a local government shut-down in Puerto Rico during the second quarter, U.S. 50-states volume grew 3.0 percent from a year ago, about double the rate of growth for the total U.S. beer industry.

In Britain, Molson said cost cuts and strong sales of its Carling brand helped offset “an extremely difficult business and commodity inflation environment.”

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