Beer maker United Breweries Ltd, controlled by Dutch multinational brewing company Heineken, plans to infuse around Rs 350 crore as capital expenditure in 2023 to meet the expected volume growth in the country, according to a top company official.

The company has “good capex plans” in place for its breweries to meet anticipated volume growth going into 2023, said its Chief Financial Officer Radovan Sikorsky in its latest earning conference call.

“We remain optimistic on the long-term growth of the industry,” he said adding the evolving consumer trends will drive premiumisation.

When asked about the Capex plan, the CFO replied: “For the coming January to December the capex spend we are looking at somewhere in the region of Rs 350 crore.”

Moreover, the leading beer maker expects inflationary pressure to continue and it would pursue price increases, in combination with cost measures to mitigate these cost impacts.

“Inflation pressure on the cost of goods sold will most likely continue in the foreseeable future and hence we will continue to pursue with further price increases to strengthen our earning, in combination with cost measures to mitigate these cost impacts,” he said.

However, he also said there seems to be some softening on some of these components, but going forward it is still too early to comment on that.

“... I still think that pressures on margins will remain and it is a little dependent on our ability to increase prices and also manage our cost to try and mitigate any of that,” Sikorsky added.