Gavin D.K. Hattersley
Director, President & Chief Executive Officer at Molson Coors Beverage
Thanks, Greg, and thank you all for joining us this morning.
In the first quarter, Molson Coors once again delivered against our commitments, growing the top and bottom line while making strong progress on our acceleration plan. We grew net sales revenue by over 10%. We grew underlying pre-tax income by nearly 69%, and we drove significant margin improvement in the first quarter. This morning, we reaffirmed our full year guidance, which Tracy will discuss in more detail shortly. To sum it up, we remain confident in our ability to grow the top and bottom line for a third consecutive year, but cautious about current trends in the industry. The US beer category has been challenged so far this year. While we did see some improvement in March, there was also volatility in the industry and mismatched weeks such as Easter. So we're keeping a close eye on April's trends and taking those into account for the balance of 2024. In spite of this volatility, we remain confident in our ability to achieve top and bottom line growth in 2024.
We also remain confident in our ability to achieve our long-term growth algorithm. In the first quarter, we grew brand volume and net sales per hectoliter in both business units, and our share gains in the US were consistent with the gains we saw in the second half of 2023. Having said that, we aren't the only ones who are confident in our business. Retailers are also confident, having allocated around 13% more space for Coors Light and Miller Lite in the US during spring resets, which supports our confidence that these share shifts are structural. Our distributors are also confident, which is why we expect our core brands to grow distribution this year. And across the globe, we have strong commercial platforms that are designed to serve our brands in 2024 and the years to come.
With that, let's get into how our business performed in the first quarter. And I'll start with the first priority of our acceleration plan, growing the revenue of our core brands. Collectively, our core brand started 2024 strong, including double-digit brand volume growth for Coors Light and Coors Banquet in the US, high-single-digit brand volume growth for Miller Lite in the US and double-digit brand volume growth for Ozujsko in Croatia. In the past four months, we've launched new long-term campaigns across our core brands, starting with Coors Light during Super Bowl. Shortly thereafter, in the US, Coors Light became the top dollar share gainer year-to-date in the on-premise per Nielsen. Miller Lite is a close second and their combined success has fueled 12 consecutive four-week periods of industry-leading on-premise growth for Molson Coors, four times more growth than the next largest competitor. In Canada, Coors Light is seeing similar success and grew nearly a full share point of the industry year-to-date.
As I hinted earlier, Coors Light momentum is anchored by our new campaign Choose To. This is an evolution of Coors Light made to Chill campaign, which helped turn the brand around. Choose Chill is more active for consumers and more connected to the refreshment and lifestyle Coors Light represents. You'll continue to see Choose Chill as we launch a new music program this summer and expand Coors Light's presence in soccer and football. We believe work like this has driven Coors to become a trusted and desirable brand for consumers, which is true for Coors Banquet as well. Of the growing brand volume by nearly 20% in 2023 in the US Banquet grew volume by 23% in the first quarter and gained nearly 0.25 point of industry dollar share. I've already spoken about spring resets.
But while we're talking about Banquet, I want to share the significant distribution growth we've seen for this brand and expect to continue seeing moving forward. In 2024, Banquet is expected to grow distribution by nearly 20%, driven by surging demand in parts of the US where Banquet has historically under-indexed like the Southeast and Great Lakes. This is what happens when consumer demand fuels distributor and retailer confidence. This year, we plan to keep driving banquet with more television media pressure, TV advertising for the first time in several years and several large programs with current and new partners across television, music and apparel.
Turning to Miller Lite, which grew its US brand volume by high single-digits in the first quarter on top of strong comps from the prior year. In March, Miller Lite launched its new All Stars program, reinvigorating the debate about where the Miller Lite taste great is less filling or both. This campaign brought on a new roster of long-term celebrity partners like J.J. Watt, Reggie Miller, Big Puppy, Jorge Posada and Mia Hamm. The early response has been very strong, and we have more planned for the Olympics, Major League Baseball and Football. Now in Canada, Miller Lite sales is an above premium price point.
And year-to-date through February, it was the fastest growing above premium beer nationally, growing its brand volume by over 40%. Speaking of Canada, the Molson trademark also outperformed the industry and gained volume share. In March, we announced a multi-year partnership with the professional women's Hockey League, which was very positively received by fans and retailers alike. Similar to other women's sports, viewership for the PWHL has surged this year with broadcast and in-person attendance, both at record highs. We're excited to continue this partnership and Molson will also have a strong presence at the Olympics this summer as the official beer sponsor of Team Canada.
Moving on to the UK Carling's partnership with the FA Cup began coming to life across TV, digital and retail in the first quarter. And we believe this is the perfect sponsorship that Carling up for sustained success. According to our data, Carling is more associated with professional soccer than any other beer in the market. At a 35% association, it's nearly double the next competitor. Rounding out our core is Ozujsko which has continued its strong momentum in Croatia and now has a 54% value share of the core segment. Ozujsko is much loved locally, but also by the many travelers who visit Croatia each year, and we've just launched a new equity campaign nationally to continue growing the brand. So our core brands have collectively continued to perform strongly in 2024, and we believe we have the right commercial plans to keep them growing for years to come.
Now turning to our high-end brands. It's clear we have lots of runway in every part of our portfolio. In the first quarter, Madri Excepcional continued its substantial growth. In the UK, the brand grew value sales of the on-trade by nearly 50% and value sales of the off-trade by over 40%. Madri is currently the number three world beer in the UK total trade, and we have been consistently closing the gap to number two. To keep the pressure on, we launched a new campaign in April that brings the soul of Madri to the UK and focuses on growing Madri's awareness. While Madri continues to grow at a strong base in the UK, you'll recall we also brought the brand to Canada in late February. And while it's still early days, Madri has already made it into about 6,000 accounts across the country, we believe the brand has performed very well so far.
Beyond Madri's success, there are other parts of our high-end portfolio that we're actively working to improve, specifically Blue Moon. Between February and March, we launched new Blue Moon packaging in the US a new name for Blue Moon Light and a large-scale campaign called Made Brighter. So our full-scale revamp has taken shape. And while it's too early to know the full effect we are seeing early signs of positive traction. We're also seeing great performance for Blue Moon non-alc, which is now the top-selling new non-alc beer of 2024. There have been about 30 non-alc beer launches in the US this year as well as increasing competition. So there is a truly strong sign as the brand continues to gain distribution and share. While we certainly have more to do on Blue Moon, we are committed to driving the turnaround, and we are happy with the progress thus far.
Speaking of progress, it was a fast start to the year for Simply Spiked, which grew US brand volume by nearly 35% in the quarter. Simply Spiked Lemonade hit shelves in February and while we are still growing distribution, our variety pack already holds the number one new item spot for the flavored alternative segment since its launch. Simply Spiked had a major media presence during March Madness, along with Coors Light and Miller Lite, we'll continue to focus on sports as a primary patient point for Simply Spiked consumers throughout the year.
And while it's still early days for our new brand, Happy Thursday, which just launched in April, we've seen a very positive response from consumers so far, and we look forward to building the brand as we approach the peak summer selling season. So as you can see, we are delivering on our long-term commitment to grow the revenue of our core power brands with strong overall performance across the world. We are delivering with the strength of high-end brands like Simply Spiked and Madri Excepcional and we are beginning to see positive traction on other key areas of our high-end portfolio, such as Blue Moon.
And finally, we are delivering on our commitment to enhance our capabilities with a large investment in our Golden Brewery nearing completion and a $100 million investment plan for our UK operations over the next five years, which we believe will ensure world-class production of our brands today and in the future. We are committed to our overall long-term strategy. We have delivered against it over the last three years, and we plan to continue delivering against it year-over-year.
And with that, I'll turn it over to Tracey to share some details on our financials and drivers of our guidance.
