Molson Coors continues to back its “beyond beer” push into non-alcoholic categories, though questions remain over the pace and balance of its portfolio after Tuesday’s Q3 earnings report.
The beer giant has long held ambitions to be a broader beverage player through acquired brands like energy drink Zoa and British mixer maker Fever-Tree, but urgency seems to be increasing after another soft earnings report that arrived amidst a generational downturn towards beer.
Molson Coors CEO and president Rahul Goyal, who assumed the role at the beginning of October, said on Tuesday according to a transcript that recent innovation with non-alc has been “encouraging,” but also repeatedly emphasized that its plans for the category were still in the early stages.
“While beer is our roots and at the core of our business, you can also expect us to step up our focus on beyond beer because we believe we can win here,” he said.
During a Q&A session with analysts, Goyal tempered any expectations of a major revolution (“We’re definitely going to be focused on beer,” he noted), while indicating that the portfolio will likely continue to expand through the same combination of acquisitions and partnerships that has served it well thus far.
Compared to three or four years ago, the company’s balance sheet is in a stronger position to make that happen: Molson CFO Tracey Joubert said the company intends “to redeploy some of the savings” from its restructuring initiative to “invest behind our brands.”
But it’s still all about capital efficiency, as Goyal noted when it comes to sizing up potential opportunities. Molson’s partnership with Coca-Cola to produce alcoholic drinks under the Topo Chico label has worked by leveraging the beer company’s infrastructure to drive scale, he said. The lingering question is how and where Molson will deploy its resources, to which Goyal’s answer was appropriately vague.
“In the ‘beyond beer’ space, we probably need to be both creative and deploy capital to fill some gaps,” he said.
Beer Struggles Continue in Q3
Molson Coors’ declines persisted, but softened slightly in Q3, remaining “largely aligned” with expectations for the quarter, the company shared this morning.
The beer giant’s total business recorded a 6% year-over-year (YoY) decline in financial volume, or shipments (sales to wholesalers), while brand volume, or depletions (sales to retailers) declined 4.5%. Those declines are on top of notable losses in 2024 (Q3 shipments -12.3% YoY, volume -4.4%), and follow Q2 2025 declines of 7% and 5.1%, respectively.
Q3 net sales declined 2.3% YoY (-3.3% on a constant currency basis), to $2.97 billion. Through the first nine months of the financial year, the company’s net sales have declined 4.6%, to nearly $8.48 billion (-5.1% in constant currency), while shipments are down 8.8% and volume has fallen 5.7% year-to-date (YTD).
Recall, Q2’s declines caused Molson Coors to lower its guidance for the second time this year. Molson Coors maintains that guidance, which includes net sales revenue down 3% to 4%, insisting that industry challenges are “cyclical.” However, in a presentation deck accompanying the financial release, the company added the following caveat:
“We expect to achieve the following targets for full-year 2025. However, the volatility in the global macro environment, resulting in uncertainty around the effects of geopolitical events and global trade policy including the impacts on economic growth, consumer trends and currencies. These impacts are multi-faceted and difficult to predict. And while we have included in our guidance our best estimate of some of these factors, external drivers may impact our guidance either up or down.”
In the Americas, Molson Coors’ Q3 shipments declined 6.5% YoY, “primarily due to lower brand volume” (depletions -4.4%) and “an approximate 3% impact from lower contract brewing volume” following the end of its partnership with Pabst, “partially offset by favorable timing of U.S. shipments. The company noted that U.S. depletion declines were even steeper (-4.9%), “impacted by the macroeconomic environment” and “lower share performance.”
Net sales revenue in the Americas fell 2.5%, to $2.26 billion (-3.5% in constant currency), “driven by lower financial volume, partially offset by favorable price and sales mix.” The latter had a 3% favorable impact on net sales performance, according to the release.
YTD, net sales are down 5.9%, to nearly $6.65 billion (-5.6% in constant currency).
For more coverage of Molson Coors’ Q3 performance, click here.