Molson Coors Beverage Company ( NYSE: TAP ) CEO Gavin Hattersley and CFO Tracey Joubert discussed current beer trends in a fireside chat with Evercore ISI on Tuesday.
October was noted to be a tough month for the beer industry with price increases being a factor, but trends were said to have improved into November. Of note, TAP said it is not seeing a trade down with U.S. consumers still being resilient in the face of macroeconomic headwinds. In particular, the Miller Lite and Coors Light brands have continued to be healthy in Q4.
Up north, the Canadian operations are expected to be back in a full inventory position for TAP in Q4 following strike headwinds in Q3. Miller Lite is also doing well in Canada, while the Seltzer business in Canada is comfortably ahead of the U.S. business driven by Vizzy, Coors Seltzer, and Topo Chico.
The Molson execs also talked about the company's capital allocation focus, which remains on reinvesting, paying down debt, and dividends. TAP is still looking for a debt leverage ratio below 3.0X by the end of the year.
The Seeking Alpha Quant Rating on TAP flipped to Buy from Hold on November 4.
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Molson Coors points to resilient beer trends in the U.S.