Drunk driving laws, coronavirus leave brewer Sabeco groggy

By Dat Nguyen June 21, 2020 | 07:36 pm PT

Men drink Sabeco's Saigon Beer in a restaurant in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham.

With stringent drunk-driving regulations and the coronavirus impacting beer sales, Sabeco has lowered its revenue target for this year to VND23.8 trillion ($1 billion).

It represents a revenue drop of 37 percent from last year for Vietnam’s largest brewer and its lowest sales figure since 2012.

The brewer of Saigon Beer also reduced its post-tax profit target by 39 percent to VND3.2 trillion ($138 million), lowest in six years.

Sabeco’s board said in a statement that tightened regulations on drunk driving are a major challenge to the alcoholic drinks market.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which caused the closure of bars and restaurants in March and April, also had a negative impact on the company’s business performance, it said.

Sabeco, a subsidiary of Thai beverage giant ThaiBev, saw profits hitting a seven-year low of VND720 billion ($31 million) in the first quarter of this year.

In the first five months the country’s beer production fell 24.5 percent year-on-year to 1.4 billion liters, according to the General Statistics Office.