A marked increase in alcohol-free beer volumes, as well as strong performance from its soft drinks portfolio, have helped increase sales at Carlsberg.

The Danish business reported revenues of £5.35bn (Dkr47bn) in its first-half revenues, which represents a 2.6% increase on the same period last year.

Alcohol-free beer volumes were up 11%, which were driven by 15% growth in Western Europe and mid-single-digit growth in Central & Eastern Europe and India.

According to the business, it also achieved volume growth in “almost all” European markets across the two regions, with particularly strong growth in the large alcohol-free markets of France, Poland, Switzerland and Ukraine.

These were driven by international and local brands that include Tuborg, 1664 Blanc, Tourtel, 1664 Bière, Falcon, Mythos and Okocim.

While its premium beer portfolio grew by 1%, Carlsberg’s largest growth category was soft drinks. In the first half of 2026 these accounted for 31% of total volumes, growing organically by 9%.

Group CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said: “Carlsberg delivered solid top-line and earnings growth for the first half-year despite the continued uncertain macro environment, and we saw sustained good progress on our key strategic priorities, with particularly strong growth for soft drinks and alcohol-free brews.

“We signed a strategic partnership with Sapporo, further strengthening our premium beer portfolio, and announced the expansion of our partnership with PepsiCo across the Nordics, the Baltics and Azerbaijan.”

“As a result of our disciplined cost focus, performance management and faster-than-expected delivery of the Britvic synergies, we’re narrowing our full-year earnings guidance towards the upper end of the range.

“We’re committed to reaching our financial 2.5x leverage target and will make strong progress towards this in 2026 thanks to free cash flow delivery, the hybrid bond issue and the expected proceeds from Sapporo’s investment in our new joint venture.”