AB InBev Near-Flat Volume. It Still Works.
HY 2026: total volume up 0.8%. Net revenue up 5.7% organically.
HY 2026: total volume up 0.8%. Net revenue up 5.7% organically. EBITDA margin holding at 35.6%. That gap between volume and revenue growth is not an accident. It is the entire operating model.
Most FMCG operators treat flat volume as a warning sign, something to fix before it becomes a trend. AB InBev has built a five-year turnaround on proving the opposite. A brewer can grow revenue and margins for years without needing to move much volume at all. HY 2026 is the cleanest demonstration yet.
The numbers behind the model
Second-quarter organic revenue grew 5.6% to $16,660 million. First-half organic revenue grew 5.7%, taking total six-month revenue to $31,927 million. Reported revenue was even stronger, up 11.0% in the quarter and 11.5% for the half, helped by favourable currency translation. None of that came from selling more beer. Net revenue per hectolitre rose 4.2% in the quarter and 4.3% across the half, the real engine behind the top line.
Total volumes grew just 0.9% in the quarter and 0.8% for the half. Beer volumes did slightly better, up 1.1% in the quarter and 1.2% for the half, reaching 280,412 thousand hectolitres. Non-beer volumes fell, down 1.1% in the quarter and 1.5% for the half, on soft beverage shifts in South America.
