Resales of Ambev sell less beer and more ' pop '

The Ambev and distributors exclusive resellers of the company's drinks showed a fall of 1% in the volume of supplies of beer, accumulated from January to may, compared to the same interval last year. The soft drinks segment, resales increased by 8% the volume of deliveries on the same basis of comparison.
The information is from the National Confederation of Resales of Ambev and logistics distribution enterprises (Confen), an organization that brings together 120 of 140 affiliated resellers of Ambev in Brazil. In addition to the affiliated resellers, Ambev operates 110 direct distribution centres. Currently, less than one-third of the distribution is made by resellers affiliates.
"Until may, resales had a distribution of beer a little below the goal, but it is possible to recover this volume in the second half. In the case of soda, the growth was even higher than expected, "said Victor Simas, President of the Confen. In Executive assessment, distribution performance in the first half was pretty much in line with the target set by the retailers for this year, which is to repeat the performance registered in 2014.
Last year, the 4.7% growth registered resellers in turnover, reaching R $ 14.4 billion. For this year, the forecast is to present an increase similar to 2014. The Confen does not disclose other financial details of distributors.
Ambev presented last year in net revenues growth of 10.6%, to R $ 24,4 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in Brazil amounted to r $ 11,72 billion, with high of 5.3% in the year. The total sales volume of Ambev in Brazil grew 3.9%, totaling 117.5 million hectolitres of beverages.
In the first quarter of 2015, Ambev's sales in Brazil had fall of 0.2 percent in volume, to 29.3 million hectolitres. Revenue advanced 10.7%, to R $ 6,52 billion. The adjusted Ebitda grew by 17.2%, to R $ 2,96 billion. The company discloses the results for the second quarter at the end of the month.
Maintaining the pace of deliveries of the Confen resellers throughout the semester are a positive indicator for Ambev, if it is considered that the drinks industry figures were negative in the first half.
According to data of the Control system for the production of beverages (Sicobe) of the internal revenue service, the production of beer in the first half amounted to 6.47 billion liters, representing a fall of 6.8% compared to the same range of 2014. In the case of soft drinks, the production in the first half shrank 5.7 percent to 7.1 billion liters.
"At the beginning of the year the industry had a view that the scenario would not be good, but the resellers such as Ambev, made the decision of not to be swayed by the negativity," said Seamus. The Executive reported that resales made adjustments to the costs of logistics and distribution.
In addition, resales have sought to make adjustments within a few points of sale, as a way to ensure the scope of delivery. SIMAS added that, this year, resales increased the distribution of drinks for self-service companies and supermarkets, taking advantage of the tendency of consumers to replace part of the beer consumption outside the home by events at home.
Resales of the Confen are responsible for distributing products of Ambev in 1 million points of sale in the country. Together, the dealers have a fleet of 8.2 thousand trucks, 2 thousand motorcycles, 2.6 thousand automobiles and utilities and 630 forklifts.
Resales invest in average $ 15 million a year. The expenses totaled R $ 259 million a year with distribution. Of this amount, R $ 210 million are diesel expenses, R $ 12 million with changing tires, $ 30 million in insurance, r $ 4 million with uniforms and $ 3 million on training.
For this year, predicting the Confen is resales will keep this same level of spending and investment. SIMAS said that keeping spending in line with last year due to an effort of resales to improve the use of free spaces on the trucks and to improve the definition of the routes to save fuel.