Global beer manufacturing company Heineken saw its revenue decline by 5% to approximately £14.7bn because of retail disputes and the negative impact of foreign exchange.

Despite this, Heineken’s operating profit increased by 7.4% to around £1.2bn. The alcoholic drinks manufacturer blamed “prolonged retail negotiations in Western Europe and category declines in Poland and Austria’’, for its drop in sales.

The UK performance remained solid with a low single-digit increase in net revenue while beer and cider volume experienced a low single-digit decline. Heineken is maintaining its full outlook for the upcoming year, projecting organic profit to increase by between 4% and 8%.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Dolf van den Brink, chief executive of Heineken, said: “Our volume performance improved across all regions in the second quarter and continued to be of high quality. In the half year, mainstream beer volume increased 0.5%, premium beer volume rose by 1.8%, and Heineken volume grew by 4.5%.

“As the year progresses, we remain agile in our execution, focusing our investments to seize the biggest opportunities, supported by a step up in expected gross savings now to exceed €0.5 billion (£0.43bn) in 2025.”

The financial results follow other drink manufacturers struggling globally, with Purity Soft Drinks reporting a weak performance and Diageo’s CEO stepping down amid falling sales.