Europe’s bad weather is bad news for beer

Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV may have closed at fresh highs last week, but persistent bad weather in Europe is killing the craving for pitchers of cold beer on a hot summer’s day.

“Nobody is outdoors having a drink,” Keith Temperton, a sales trader at Tavira Securities Ltd., said in an emailed response to a Bloomberg query. “The bad weather in Europe is weighing on brewers.”

Carlsberg shares dropped as much as 3.4 percent in Copenhagen, with Heineken retreating 1.9 percent. The stocks were the top losers in Europe’s Stoxx 600 Food and Beverage Index on Friday, with Belgium’s Anheuser-Busch InBev NV the third-biggest decliner.

Summer is high season for European brewers and soft-drink makers, with the second and third quarters typically accounting for about two-thirds of profit, according to Jefferies International Ltd.’s estimates.

Even if bookmakers are slashing the odds of this June being the U.K.’s wettest on record, it doesn’t look good. Europe’s recent weather is likely to hit brewers and soft drink companies such as Fevertree Drinks Plc, especially compared with last summer, host to a heat wave, the soccer World Cup and a royal wedding, Jefferies analyst Edward Mundy wrote in a June 13 note to clients.

It’s not just about beer — the rain is also causing U.K. retailers such as Next Plc to suffer, Tavira’s Temperton said.