Other mobile phone retailers don't seem to be doing nearly as well. Yet it is also because Carphone is simply in the right space at the right time. The deal makes SABMiller the largest brewer in the world by volume, after InBev.The 5 per cent beer volume gain for the half-year was the result of strong growth in Poland, with the rest of continental Europe demonstrating more moderate growth. SABMiller also enjoyed a 3 per cent rise in volumes in South Africa, where it controls 98 per cent of the market.
Its main rival Anheuser-Busch, behind the Budweiser brand, has hit the recovery the Miller brands had been making this year. The brewer of Miller Lite, Castle and Peroni beers said trading of its Miller brands in North America had become "increasingly price-competitive and subject to higher input costs, which have affected profitability." Shares in the group fell 23p to 1,035p.SABMiller also saidit had completed its $7.8bn (£4.4bn) acquisition of the South American brewer, Bavaria, which it bought after an auction for the group's assets. Miller, which SAB bought in 2002 and is the US's second-largest brewer, suffered a 0.3 per cent fall in sales to retailers in the six months to the end of September. At Homebase, the 4 per cent fall was exacerbated by a 6 per cent fall in the second quarter.. SABMiller, the international brewing giant, announced a 5 per cent rise in worldwide beer volumes yesterday, but warned that its US Miller business was struggling against its rivals. Underlying sales at Argos fell 3 per cent during the half, but improved to minus 2 per cent during the second quarter. Including the effect of a weaker US dollar, sales rose 2 per cent to £355m.
Underlying retail sales rose 9 per cent to £111m, wholesale fell 1 per cent to £197m and licensing gained 3 per cent to £39m.Antoine Colonna, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note to investors: "These numbers reflect the transitional stage of the business model."Meanwhile GUS, which owns 66 per cent of Burberry, reported a mixed first half, with another record contribution from its financial arm, Experian, offsetting weak sales at Argos and Homebase. She said, however, that the group's guidance on sales had not changed.Group sales growth in the six months to 30 September slowed to 3 per cent, calculated at constant exchange rates, down from 14 per cent growth a year ago and weaker than several analysts had pencilled in. It also "anticipates soft demand in Spain and the UK".Stacey Cartwright, the finance director, said the decision to stop wholesaling womenswear in Spain to the El Corte Ingles department store chain in favour of opening retail concessions instead, would put a "strain" on the balance sheet because it would push sales from this year into next. One day after the luxury-goods group unveiled its successor to Rose Marie Bravo, its highly esteemed chief executive, its interim sales figures fell short of expectations. Shares in the group, which will be demerged from GUS in December, fell 7 per cent to 383p. Analysts fretted that Angela Ahrendts, who was poached from Liz Claiborne to replace Ms Bravo next July, would take over at a tricky juncture for Burberry. The group lost some credibility with some of its most important wholesale customers after a weak season last autumn. It is also reshuffling its supply chain so it can replenish its stock faster in stores.Burberry said that based on wholesale orders received so far for its spring/ summer 2006 collection it "anticipates a moderate underlying decline" in wholesale sales in the next six months.
