Carlsberg Boston Consulting Group Matrix

Carlsberg's Beyond Beer portfolio, including brands like Somersby cider and Garage hard seltzers, is a significant growth driver. In 2024, this segment achieved 5% organic volume growth, and continued this momentum with 6% growth in the first quarter of 2025. This performance highlights the increasing consumer demand for alternatives to traditional beer.

These products are well-positioned to capture evolving consumer tastes, tapping into the expanding market for ciders and hard seltzers. While precise market share figures are dynamic, the robust growth trajectory indicates a strong and expanding presence for Carlsberg in these key beverage categories, effectively diversifying its overall product offering.

Carlsberg's premium offerings, including its namesake brand and Tuborg, are firmly positioned as Stars. These brands are experiencing robust growth in key emerging markets. For instance, premium Carlsberg volumes surged by 19% in fiscal year 2024 in markets like China and Vietnam. Similarly, Tuborg saw a 5% total volume increase in 2024, driven by strong performance in Vietnam and India. This indicates a high market share in rapidly expanding segments.

Carlsberg's portfolio features established local brands like Feldschlösschen in Switzerland. These brands hold significant market share within their mature, slow-growth domestic markets, demonstrating strong consumer loyalty and established distribution. In 2024, such brands are crucial for generating consistent, predictable revenue streams.

These mature brands, often referred to as Cash Cows, require minimal capital expenditure for growth, allowing them to generate substantial free cash flow. This financial stability is vital for funding other parts of Carlsberg's business, such as Stars or Question Marks, and supporting overall corporate objectives.

Carlsberg's established Western European beer portfolio, particularly its core lagers and premium brands like Kronenbourg 1664, function as significant cash cows. These products dominate mature markets with slow growth but boast high market shares, requiring minimal investment for maintenance and expansion. For example, in FY2024, while Western Europe saw a slight volume decline of -1.1%, Carlsberg's strong brand equity allowed for effective pricing strategies, ensuring consistent revenue generation. This stability is crucial for funding growth initiatives in other segments of the business.

Huda beer, a prominent mainstream brand in Vietnam, saw a slight dip in performance in 2024, particularly during the final quarter which faced market headwinds. Despite Carlsberg's overall solid position as Vietnam's fourth-largest brewer, a weakening mainstream brand like Huda, even within a growing market, can be categorized as a Dog. This classification arises if its market share continues to shrink without clear signs of recovery, indicating it might be demanding more investment than it generates in returns.

Dogs in Carlsberg's portfolio are brands with low market share in low-growth markets. These often include legacy brands in declining regions like parts of Eastern Europe, where market contraction impacts performance. For instance, Kazakhstan's beer market contraction directly affected Carlsberg's operations there, placing its brands in that region into the Dog category.

These brands typically operate near break-even, consuming resources without significant return potential. The expiration of the San Miguel brand license in the UK at the end of 2024 also effectively moved this distributed brand into the 'Dog' classification for Carlsberg UK, representing a loss of volume and revenue.

Managing these Dogs involves optimizing operations for cash generation rather than expansion, potentially leading to consolidation or divestment if profitability cannot be improved.

Carlsberg's soft drinks segment saw a 4% organic volume decline in Q1 2025, a trend that disproportionately affects brands in less dynamic markets, further solidifying their 'Dog' status.

Carlsberg's acquisition of the Pepsi bottling license in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, effective Q1 2026, marks a strategic pivot into the soft drinks sector. This move positions these new operations as question marks within the BCG matrix, requiring significant investment to build market share and brand recognition in potentially lucrative markets.

While these Central Asian markets show promise for soft drink consumption growth, Carlsberg's current market penetration in these specific bottling ventures is minimal. The company's investment will be crucial for establishing a competitive foothold against existing players and realizing the full potential of these new territories, which are expected to see a rise in beverage demand.

Carlsberg's strategic ventures into new markets or product categories, such as the Fonio beer launched in August 2024 or the Pepsi bottling licenses secured in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for Q1 2026, are prime examples of Question Marks.

These initiatives, characterized by low current market share but high growth potential, necessitate significant investment in marketing, distribution, and brand building to gain traction and achieve profitability.

The success of these ventures hinges on Carlsberg's ability to effectively nurture them, aiming to transition them into Stars by capturing a substantial portion of their respective growing markets.