Beer Group President and Anadolu Efes CEO Can Çaka’s Comments

“As we navigated a year of headwinds, I am pleased to report very strong results once again where we have been able to surpass our targets in almost all metrics. We started the year with strict mobility restrictions followed by curfews, lock-downs and on-trade sales bans for a few consecutive months. In the second half, while COVID-19 related restrictions eased, the commodity and raw material prices escalated sharply. Together with macro-economic developments, rising inflation and currency fluctuations necessitated revisiting our plans for the rest of the year. Yet, we managed to deliver robust topline growth, healthy margins and highest-ever free cash flow in such a challenging year. I am also very happy to share that our Board of Directors proposed TL 1.1 billion dividends for 2021” commented Mr. Can Çaka, Beer Group President and Anadolu Efes CEO.

In beer group, we had a consistent solid volume performance in international operations throughout the year. In soft drinks, both the domestic and international operations were resilient and recorded double-digit volume growths.

In Russia, despite the challenges during the year, the beer market grew low-single digit in FY2021; where our growth was at mid-to-high single digits. I am very happy to deliver the fourth consecutive year of growth in Russia, among other drivers; was driven by successful performances achieved in premium segment as well as in non-alcohol and flavored categories. These categories both demonstrated double-digit growth rates where the growth was assisted by new product launches as well. It was a quite tough year for Ukraine beer market. Our volumes were positively impacted by growth in Beyond Beer categories, namely kvass & cider. Both of them have showed significant industry growth of high-single digit to low-double digit, where we have been able to gain significant share within the cider category. CIS operations had great performance during the year, printing double-digit topline growth, benefitting from strong volume generation and strong pricing. We also managed to deliver our target of doubling our export business within three years and we are now more excited about setting new targets.

In Turkey, where we have been impacted by the restrictions the most, volumes grew by more than 5% in 2021. We maintained our marketing efforts related to Efes +1 relaunch during the year but also focused on the development of our portfolio. While Bud has almost doubled its market share versus last year, our upper mainstream portfolio has reached highest volume. Considering the good performances achieved by our newly launched brand Efes Glutensiz, we will continue our innovations in 2022 as well in line with our dedication to have the innovative leadership in the market. We are aware that the operating environment will be no easy in 2022. We have made a good start to the year however the price increases taken across the board will undoubtedly affect our operating markets’ volumes in the rest of the year. Besides, the inflationary environment may also impact consumer’s purchasing power. Yet, we have identified our priorities and set our clear strategies and roadmaps to overcome these challenges. I am confident to deliver our targets this year as well with strong per liter performance, tight expense management and effective utilization of risk-mitigating tools.