(Reuters) – Beer cans supplier Ball Corp missed third-quarter sales estimates on Thursday, hurt by slowing demand for its beverage cans and business disruption at one of its largest customers in the U.S.
The world’s largest supplier of beer cans is navigating a challenging macro environment with consumers cutting down on discretionary spending, which has impacted Ball’s customers and suppliers, weighing on its sales and production volumes.
Higher retail prices have dampened customer spending in the company’s biggest markets, U.S. and Europe.
Ball has also seen an impact from slipping demand at one of its major clients, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, in the U.S., after the Bud Light maker faced conservative backlash over a social media promotional campaign involving a transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney.
The Westminster, Colorado-based company posted a nearly 10 percent fall in volumes in the North and Central America segment, while the Europe, Middle East and Africa segment posted a 1.9 percent drop, excluding Russia.
The company’s third-quarter net sales dropped nearly 10% to $3.57 billion, missing analysts’ average estimate of $3.81 billion, according to LSEG data.
However, lower aluminum costs and cost-cutting initiatives by the company helped it post a third-quarter adjusted profit of 83 cents per share, topping expectations of 81 cents per share.
“Improved operational efficiencies across our global aluminum packaging operations, inflationary cost recovery and benefits of cost-out actions offset higher interest costs and challenging year-over-year volume comparisons,” CEO Daniel Fisher said.
(Reporting by Annett Mary Manoj; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
