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Welcome to AB InBev's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from AB InBev are Mr. Michel Doukeris, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Fernando Tennenbaum, Chief Financial Officer. To access the slides accompanying today's call, please visit AB InBev's website at www.ab-inbev.com and click on the Investors tab in the Reports and Results Center page. Today's webcast will be available for on-demand playback later today. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star one on your touch-tone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself by pressing star then two. If you should require operator assistance, please press star zero.

Some of the information provided during the conference call may contain statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. It is possible that AB InBev's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect AB InBev's future results, see risk factors in the company's latest annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 3rd, 2026. AB InBev assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information provided during the conference call and shall not be liable for any action taken in reliance upon such information.

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Michel Doukeris. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you. Welcome everyone to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, Fernando and I will take you through our operating highlights and provide you with an update on the progress we have made in executing our strategic priorities. After that, we'll be happy to answer your questions. Let's start with the key highlights. The global momentum of our business continued to start the year. The consistent execution of our consumer-centric strategy drove solid top and bottom-line performance. Beer volumes increased by 1.2% with record high first quarter volumes in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, and Peru, amongst others. Revenue increased by 5.8% with disciplined revenue management and positive mix from premiumization and Beyond Beer. Underlying EPS increased by 20.8% to reach $0.97, an all-time high first quarter EPS for our business.

Our momentum was driven by our mega brands, non-alcohol beer and Beyond Beer. In the U.S., our sales to retailer volumes grew, and we were the number one share gainer in total alcohol as we continue to gain share in both beer and spirits. We increased our portfolio brand power driven by increased market investments and estimate that we gained or maintained share in 75% of our markets. BEES continued to scale with GMV increasing by 55% to reach more than $1 billion in quarterly GMV. In summary, our business delivered another quarter of reliable compounding growth. We are winning in key markets and growth segments, and we are confident in the resilience of our strategy and ability to deliver consistent results. Turning to our operating performance.

Total volumes increased by 0.8% and EBITDA increased by 5.3% with flattish margins as disciplined revenue and cost management enabled increased sales and marketing investments and offset transactional headwinds. The strength of our diversified geographic footprint has continued to enable us to deliver consistent results through different operating environments. Our footprint is both well-diversified and balanced. With 70% of our EBITDA generated in emerging and developing markets, we are well positioned to capture future industry growth with a mix of currencies. I'll take a few minutes to walk you through the operational highlights for the quarter from our key regions, starting with North America. In the U.S., our business continues to build momentum with STR volume growth driven by share gains in both beer and Beyond Beer and an improved industry.

Michelob ULTRA and Busch Light continued to lead our beer performance and were top two volume share gainers. Our Beyond Beer portfolio delivered revenue growth in the high 60s, led by Cutwater, which grew revenue in the triple digits and was the number one share-gaining brand in total spirits industry in the first quarter of 2026. Now let's turn to Middle Americas. In Mexico, record high volumes drove high single-digit top and mid-single digit bottom-line growth as we continue to outperform the industry. In Colombia, record high volumes drove double-digit top and bottom line growth. In Brazil, market share gain and an improved industry drove record high beer volumes and double-digit bottom line growth. Our premium and super premium beer brands led our performance and delivered low 20s volume growth, strengthening our leadership position in the segment.

In Europe, volumes grew by low single digits as market share gains and premiumization offset a soft industry to deliver both top and bottom line growth. In South Africa, our momentum continued with record high volumes driving mid-single digit top-line growth. Our performance was driven by our premium and super premium beer brands, which grew volumes by mid-20s. Moving to APAC. In China, our volume trend improved as we increased the investments to rebuild momentum. Volumes declined by 1.5%, estimated to have underperformed a slightly growing industry. While we have seen some initial signs of improved performance, we still have work to do to strengthen our execution, expand our in-home channel presence, and increase our participation in the growing segments of the industry.

Now, I would like to give you an update on the industry and the beer category and progress we have made in executing our strategy. First, I will start with the industry and the beer category. According to IWSR, the beer category gained 60 basis points in share of alcohol beverage in 2025, and an additional 10 basis points when including the fast-growing Beyond Beer category. Combined, beer and Beyond Beer have now gained more than 300 basis points of share since 2019. The number of consumers participating in the alcohol category remained stable year-over-year. With our data, we estimate that beer participation has also remained broadly stable.

Beer plays an important role in bringing people together and creating moments of celebration, and we believe beer has a long runway for future volume growth across our footprint, supported by favorable demographics, economic growth, and opportunities to increase the category participation. Turning now to the first pillar of our strategy: lead and grow the category. Our mega brands continue to outperform with net revenue increasing by 8.2%. Corona continued to drive premiumization across our markets, growing revenue by 16% outside of Mexico and growing volumes by double digits in 32 markets. The combination of our leading mega brands and platforms is a powerful opportunity to lead and grow the category. In quarter one, we shared golden moments with consumers at the Winter Olympics, and we are ready to celebrate the shared passion of beer and football during the FIFA World Cup.

The consistent execution of our category expansion levers are driving momentum across our key initiatives as we continue to offer superior core brands, innovate in balanced choices, and expand our premium and Beyond Beer portfolios. Led by the growth of Corona Cero globally and Michelob ULTRA Zero in the U.S., our non-alcohol beer portfolio outperformed the industry and delivered a 27% revenue increase. With an estimated 60% of volume coming from new occasions and new consumers, we believe non-alcohol beer is a key opportunity to develop the category and drive incremental volume growth. Let's turn now to our second strategic pillar: digitize and monetize our ecosystem. The customer behavior and purchase trends captured by BEES enable us to leverage AI capabilities to execute our commercial strategy. On an annualized basis, we have over 20 billion AI-driven touch points.

Each one is an opportunity to use AI to provide superior service, progress our revenue management agenda, and supply leading brands and innovations. In the first quarter, BEES captured $14.6 billion in gross merchandising value, a 15% increase versus last year. BEES marketplace continues to scale with GMV from sales of third-party products increasing by 55% versus last year to reach $1.1 billion. Our D2C business continues to grow and is enabling us to monetize our ecosystem. Our digital platforms served 12 million consumers and generated $139 million in revenue. As we continue to digitize and monetize our ecosystem, we have started to commercialize third-party products on our D2C platforms.

While we are in the early stage of exploring this opportunity, we're now having a growing D2C marketplace with annualized GMV of $160 million. I would like to hand it over to Fernando to discuss the third pillar of our strategy, optimize our business.

Thank you, Michel. Hello, everyone. I'll take a few minutes to discuss the progress we have made on four key areas in optimizing our business. Superior profitability, compounding dollar EPS growth, capital allocation flexibility, and the sustainability and resilience of our supply chain. Through disciplined resource allocation and overhead management, we were able to offset transactional effects headwinds to maintain our superior margins while increasing our sales and marketing investments to accelerate momentum. While each year has unique dynamics, we are confident the combination of our leadership advantages, disciplined revenue management, continued premiumization, and efficient operating model creates an opportunity for further margin expansion over time. Moving on to EPS. Topline growth, effective cost management, and translational effect tailwinds drove underlying EPS of $0.97 per share, a 20.8% increase in dollars. EBITDA growth accounted for an $0.11 per share increase, partially offset by below-the-line items.

Our bond portfolio remains well-distributed with no relevant medium-term refinancing needs. We have no bonds maturing in 2026, a weighted average maturity of 13 years, and no financial covenants. In recognition of our consistent financial performance and the strength of our balance sheets, Moody's recently upgraded our credit rating from A3 to A2. As we continue to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of our supply chain, we remain focused on improving operational efficiency in the following key areas: agriculture, water, and energy and emissions. Please refer to our website for further details of our goals. Our results in the first quarter, the strength of the beer category, and the continued momentum of our business all reinforce our confidence in our ability to deliver on our 2026 outlook of 4%-8% EBITDA growth. With that, I'll hand it back to Michel for some final comments.

Thanks, Fernando. Before opening for Q&A, I would like to take a moment to recap on the quarter, the momentum of our business, and the opportunities we have ahead of us. Our momentum continued to start the year, and we delivered solid top and bottom-line results. Our performance this quarter is another proof point of the resilience of our strategy and our ability to deliver reliable growth through different operating environments. The combination of our diversified geographical footprint, global scale, and superior local execution, disciplined revenue and cost management, consistent investment in our leading mega brands and platforms, best-in-class digital capabilities, and momentum behind our initiatives and innovation in growing segments position us well to deliver compounding growth and superior value creation for our shareholders. With that, I'll hand it back to the operator for the Q&A.

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. In the interest of time, we will limit participants to one question and one follow-up question. Again, if you have a question or comment, please press star one on your touch-tone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself by pressing star, then two. We do ask that while you pose your question, you pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality. Our first question has come from the line of Edward Mundy with Jefferies. Please proceed with your questions.

Morning, Michel. Morning, Fernando. My first question is about the future momentum of the portfolio. It looks like you're now at a tipping point where the core is stable and the growthier parts of the portfolio are now scaled, you know, well integrated into the playbook, and have got pretty decent momentum. You know, how are you thinking about the portfolio from here, Michel? My follow-up question is on your revenue practice of 4.5% in the first quarter. Are you able to split out in the broadest terms what your distinction was via mix versus traditional, you know, revenue growth management levers like pricing?

Morning, Ed. Thanks for the questions. I'll start with the portfolio momentum. I think if you step back for a second and you put things in context beyond the quarter only, we are very well positioned to continue to deliver compounding growth and value creation.

This starts, of course, with our strategy. We talked a lot about this over the last four years. We built a strategy that's both resilient, but is also one that we can adapt for different occasions. I always say, like beer, work in different occasions. This strategy is based on the footprint we have on the growth areas that we identified for the business and the investment choices that we made, so we could accelerate growth and create options in these areas. Of course, most of the options that we created was focusing on improving our portfolio.

You see this coming strongly in the U.S., where we are rebalancing our portfolio towards growing segments. We are also using this at a global level, investing on the right brands and investing on the right areas where we think that both the brands that we have and innovation can meet consumer demand and accelerate the growth for both the category and for our business. I think that as we keep building on that, today, we have over 40% of our revenues, when you think about premium, balanced choices and Beyond Beer, that is growing at double-digits revenues. We think that this is the main driver behind our momentum. Of course, the more we feed and the more fuel we give to this momentum, the more we can continue to accelerate this in the future.

When you think about the revenue, this is almost like those two things are combined, right? Stronger brands and a stronger portfolio allows to keep building on the revenue management agenda that we have. If you look at the quarter one, for example, mix was a very important component on our revenue per hectolitre growth. You give or take inflation 3%-3.5%. What is built on top of that is the impact of the growing segments and growing brands, adding a component that's very structural for our revenue per hectolitre as we move forward, which is mix. Thank you for the question.

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Rob Ottenstein with Evercore. Please proceed with your questions.

Great. Thank you very much. So Michel, you've really delivered terrific results for a couple of years now. A strong start to 2026. You've held, gained share in most markets. You know, as you mentioned, you're getting strong price mix. You're showing some volume growth and importantly, pretty much every quarter, almost every quarter, you've hit your medium-term algorithm. You know, you answered part of this, you know, in the prior question in terms of improving the portfolio. In addition to that, can you talk about maybe, you know, one or two, three other things that you're doing differently today than maybe five years ago that is allowing for such strong and consistent results? Do you believe, you know, this is sustainable going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Robert, and good morning. I like the question because we always say that every quarter will be different, right? We have different dynamics impacting the quarter, and quarter one happens to be one on the positive side, and we are very encouraged by the way that we started the year with solid top and bottom line performance. It's also reassuring that over the last four years, we have been seeing different operating environments. Nevertheless, the strategy remains solid and the execution is gaining momentum. This momentum can be perceived on the portfolio momentum, on the total revenue momentum, on the growth path that we have, the choices that we made, and how these choices now are playing out.

I think that this long-term point of view is one of the big changes that we have made, because you could not do what we are aiming to do, which is our organic-led growth strategy, work on a given quarter only. It needs to be to the long term. One of the things that I think we are all very proud is the choices we made and the investments that we have been making to the long term. Investments in portfolio, investments in digital capability, investments on the brands that we choose to support and grow, which are the mega brands. I also think that the execution has been enabled by both a very strong culture and the way that the team is focused on growing the business and the additional benefits of our digital capabilities.

Today, the fact that we wired the whole system and that data is driving a lot of the decisions we make, but also supporting the decision-making in the front line is a very important component of our growth algorithm and the way we do business today. Last, I think I talked a little bit about this, but the team has been working very hard in doing everything that we do with a high level of efficiency, which is traditional into the company's operation, operational efficiencies, but also commercial efficiencies. The work that we do is making the money that we invest work very hard for us, and the brands are growing power. We are gaining share on the key markets that we operate, and the choices we made to invest for the future portfolio are gaining momentum and paying off.

Very thankful to the team, all the work that they are doing. They're working hard to earn this every day. One more quarter that we delivered on our outlook, and we are very encouraged to see what the summer is going to bring, especially with FIFA around the corner. That's going to be an interesting moment in the year. Thank you for your question.

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Olivier Nicolai with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, good morning, Michel, Fernando, Shaun. Two questions, please, both related to the U.S. First, I mean, momentum in the U.S. has clearly improved year-to-date. Could you give us perhaps a bit your sentiment on the current consumer demand in light of higher gas prices over the last month? Also, is it fair to assume that STWs are going to be well ahead of STRs in Q2 as you probably build up some inventories for the FIFA World Cup coming up in June? Secondly, it's been only a couple of months since you got BeatBox now part of the portfolio, but can you give us a bit more details on what does that brand bring to your existing portfolio of spirits RTDs?

If you would expect the same growth trajectory that you had on NÜTRL and Cutwater, without necessarily cannibalizing those. Thank you.

Hi, Olivier. Good morning, and thank you for the questions. I'll try to answer all of them. I got, like, I think, three or four questions in one shot here. Let's see how we do on that. The first one, I think that the overall consumer sentiment is well known by everybody in the industry and in the consumer sector. I think we had a tough year last year for consumers as inflation was still building and people are trying to build back their disposable income. The beginning of the year, fair to say that was more benign, let's say in the quarter one. Of course, everything that's going on now with energy costs and potential inflation implications will have somehow a delayed impact.

We have seen some costs going up to date, but we know that it takes anywhere from three to six months for this really hit on consumers. At this point, I would say that things are manageable for everybody, for consumers and for the companies. We know that as we build towards the end of the year, depending on the direction that we see for inflation, these things will start to compound again and will be a, once again, a factor for both consumers to manage and for the CPGs to manage. Fair to say that if you look at the last four or five years, we've been managing one difference each and every year or each and every quarter. On the question on STWs and STRs, if you look for the over time or during the full year, they always tend to converge.

This has been true for the last many, many years and will not be different this year. The difference on what you said, if I got correctly your question, is that we should expect on the quarter two an inversion on that. This never happens because of the summer. We often sell more during the summer than what we can ship. The conversion that you see on STRs and STWs historically is more towards the back end of the year, not towards the summer. Right. I think that we'll continue to see some mismatch as we go for quarter two and then quarter three, and then from quarter three to quarter four is when things tend to converge. On the ready-to-drinks, I think that we have a great portfolio globally.

We have global brands that we are growing in the local markets and scaling up globally. Just think, for example, at the expansion that we are doing now with Flying Fish. Flying Fish from Africa traveled to Europe, to South America, and is growing today in many different markets. This is true for Cutwater that we are starting to expand as well. Beatbox will add to this portfolio and is very complementary. It's not cannibalistic to any of the other brands that we have. It complements our portfolio, bringing an option that is non-carbonated, more convenient, more flavorful, and therefore, suits for some different consumer occasions and consumer profiles. It's our portfolio. Now, if you look at the top 10 brands, we have Cutwater, we have NÜTRL, we have Beatbox.

If you look at the top five brands growing in the U.S., then we also have a strong set there with Cutwater and BeatBox coming. As you combine the power of what the team built at BeatBox with the AB distribution and folks in the U.S., for sure we will see some good opportunities come to the table. Thank you for the question.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Sanjeet Aujla with UBS. Please proceed with your questions.

Hey, morning, Michel, Fernando. Just following up on the U.S. again, please. It looks like the underlying business in Q1 is growing around 4.7%. How much of that is coming from the Beyond Beer portfolio? Is that portfolio gross margin accretive to the U.S. operations or not? I guess finally, as we sat here in 12 months time, what gives you the confidence that brands like Cutwater can keep growing despite lapping what's going to be a really high base?

Hey, Sanjeet, good morning, and thank you for the question. On the first point, I think that the math is very straightforward. STRs were positive and the revenue per hectoliter was very good, building on inflation and mix, very similar to the global business as we said before. This momentum, if we step back and we remember many times that I answered this question in our conversations here. We are on a mission to rebalance our portfolio in the U.S. Because of the nature of the market, the 3-tier system, this rebalance will never happen overnight, but it's something that we have been building over time. Today we have over 40%-45% of our business that is already above core, above mainstream in the U.S.

If you think about the brands that are growing pretty much the same number, they are approaching 50%. When you get the pace of this growth versus how we've been stabilizing the other brands that we have in the declining segments, then the product of this is a product that is very encouraging for the quarter, but also to the mid, long term in the U.S. We have a better portfolio today than what we had couple of years ago. When you think about the Beyond Beer contribution on that, this was a bet that we took to the heart back then in 2017. We learned a lot. It didn't happen over time, so people like to think about this overnight successes. This is not. This is 10 years in the making. This portfolio today is very strong.

We have pure play brands that they enjoy a very special space in consumers' mind. They are building distribution still. All of them have very low distribution, very low household penetration. We are at early stage on the S-curve to continue to develop and grow this brand. They all have momentum. Some of them have an accelerated momentum, like triple digits, but they are all growing double digits or more. The thing that they have the room to continue to grow this brand is huge. Because again, low penetration, low household penetration, low participation in consumers, but very, very strong propositions. The margins, we talked before about that, like on a gross margin percentage speaking, they are smaller than beer because they have higher cost base, smaller volumes today, but they are enjoying operating leverage because of course they are growing strongly.

Margins are only improving. On the absolute dollars, they are way more profitable, let's say 20%-30% more profitable than our premium beers. Very good business for us to be in. Cutwater, as you said, at this point, we are concerned with the quality. We are concerned with our message on delivering superior experience, ready-to-drink cocktails for consumers, and we are working to supply the demand, which is being very strong to date. Good brand, good place to be in. Number one share gainer in the spirits industry, the fastest growing brand in that space, contributing immensely to our momentum in the U.S. Thank you for the question.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Celine Pannuti with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Good afternoon. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. My first question would be on FIFA activation. Can you talk about, you know, when we should see the step-up in growth for the Q2 and Q3, whether there's anything you can help us in terms of quantification? Likewise, in terms of the step-up in A&P that we should expect in Q2, Q3. On that point, what was the Q1 step-up in SG&A spend on, please? My follow-up question would be on the price mix. You said, Michel, that around you had 3% or 3.5% inflation and on top the mix. It feels like inflation CPI globally is not going to decelerate given what's going to happen or the environment unfolding.

Would we be fair therefore that this kind of growth in price mix is resilient throughout the year? Thank you.

Hey, Celine. Good morning. Thank you for the questions. I'll take two or three of them here, and then Fernando can add at the end a little bit on the cost side. First, I think that the FIFA numbers, we have a good history on that. Every four years happens, is visible for everybody. The numbers that we usually globally, based on the data that we have, suggest that FIFA contributes historically anywhere from 20-30 basis points of the year volume. Of course, this depends on the location of the games and the time of the games, and this can vary by country. I think it's natural to think that if you go to Germany or Brazil or Argentina is a more relevant event than it is, for example, in some of the Asian countries.

Think like 20-30 basis points globally uplift. It happens on the months of June and July, so it's a concentrated impact during these months. We'll see normally this coming through in the quarter two, quarter three as we approach the games. Now we are on the countdown. We are really ready with the execution. The execution should be hitting the markets as we speak. In some of the markets, we've already advancing a little bit of that. In some of the markets, we are waiting the final stage that we are approaching now to start kicking off the campaigns. The SG&A is the same.

This year, on top of being during the summer, which is often a moment that we invest more, we're going to have on top of that FIFA World Cup, and this will somehow spread equally through quarter two and quarter three. Quarter two a little bit heavier, of course, because you have the anticipation campaigns and everything that happens. On the price side, very clear, like, our policy is to price with inflation. If inflation accelerates, we will need to then, cope with that and adjust our plans. To this point, we feel good where we are and with the plans that we have. Mix, which is a very important part of our revenue strategy, is compounding on these numbers. We look at the last quarter one was very good. Quarter three was good as well.

This is a structural benefit on our revenue management. The fact that we are investing on the mega brands, our investment choices on growing segments that are more profitable, such as non-alcoholic beer, premium and Beyond Beer, of course, they add to our revenue that should continue to move with inflation.

Celine, Fernando here. Just to add on Michel's comment. Michel mentioned the SG&A, the advertisement expenditures. Every year is unique in a sense, given our hedging policy, we always have good visibility when we go into the year. We knew that this year we're going to have more sales and market concentrated around the World Cup. We also knew that given the hedging policy and effects movements, we know that from a cost of goods sold standpoint, you have more pressures on the H1, particularly in Mexico and Brazil rather than H2. Given that we know all that when we start the year, we took some proactive measures in both revenue and cost management agenda to better balance the year.

What I mean better balance the year is H1 versus H2. On the things that we can control, we try to smooth out some of the impacts that we already anticipate going to the year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Mitch Collett with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, Michel. Hi, Fernando. My first question, I guess, follows on from that last comment. How should we think about the phasing of 1H and 2H EBITDA growth, given what you've just said about the phasing of transactional FX, but also maybe some of the other factors like the Midwest premium and also your sales and marketing investment, which sounds like it's going to be still reasonably concentrated in Q2 and Q3, which is, I think, what you said at the full year call. My second question is on the five markets that you call out, where you've reached record high first quarter volumes. I appreciate there may be some phasing within that, but it certainly seems very counter to the prevailing narrative of alcohol consumption and beer being under pressure.

Are there any commonalities between those markets that you haven't already covered in your answers to the other questions? Thank you.

Hi, Mitch. Fernando here. Let me start with the first one. What I said, and maybe it's good to reinforce, is that we understand kind of a COGS dynamics given our hedging, and we know more or less how they are going to behave. We know that, probably the biggest pressure is in half one, maybe even more a little bit towards Q1, and then they start easing off as the months go by. Knowing that, you can already be proactive in our revenue and cost management initiatives to counterbalance some of these effects. To the same token, we know that, as the cost pressures on the customer start easing off, you know that you're ramping up sales and marketing because of the World Cup.

All in all, we expect kind of a more balanced year, when you go all the way to the end. Even though the lines, you should see different components between the lines, which are the dynamics that we already knew, once we started the year.

Yeah. Taking on your second question, Mitch, thanks for the question. First, I think that we mentioned this because we believe it is important data point for investors and for all of you guys, and those are meaningful markets like Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Peru, Mexico, and we have many others that reached an all-time high volume. You are right, there is a benefit from Easter. Think about anywhere from 30-50 basis points of the growth coming from the shift of Easter in quarter one versus quarter two last year. Nevertheless, all these markets grew north of that. They grew more than the Easter shift. What is common across these markets is twofold.

One, as we keep saying, is structurally, the key fundamentals behind the beer category that are demographics, that are economic growth, and the opportunities for the category to have higher participation, they remain in place. Even though the dynamics of each quarter will always be different, we have seen everything in the last four years, those fundamental dynamics do not change. Second, our strategy is a growth strategy, we keep working on the key elements of our growth strategy, investing to the long term, this is obviously paying off as our portfolio gets stronger on the areas that have more growth. In all these areas, you see strong core brands, maintaining or gaining participation in the category. You see premium brands growing and improving access to consumers in different occasions.

You see our Beyond Beer brands expanding the set of consumers that we bring into our portfolio. Last but not least, the non-alcohol as a new avenue for growth, a strong growth across all these markets. It's a global strategy that has been well executed locally on our markets, that has long-term investments and choices that we make. We optimize these investments, and while every quarter will have its own dynamics, it's good to see that back end of last year was good, quarter one was solid. This, I think, that helps to neutralize or to put in context, what you call different narratives around the category. At the end of the day, beer is big, beer is growing, is gaining share of growth globally.

It's a category that's part of people's life for every moment of celebration for more than 5,000 years, and it's not going anywhere, to be honest. If you look towards the summer now, it's going in a very good direction with FIFA being celebrated globally. Thank you for the question.

Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Simon Hales with Citi. Please proceed with your questions.

Thank you. Hi, Michel. Hi, Fernando. My first question was just a quick clarification really on the Q1 volume shipments that we saw. I just wanted to check that within those numbers, there wasn't any shipments ahead of the World Cup into some of your key markets. I think particularly some of the strength we saw in Latin America, there was nothing. There was no trade loading, I suppose is the underlying question there.

Secondly, I just wonder if you could just talk a little bit more about the performance of Brazil in the quarter, how the business evolved through the period, you know, how you exited Q1, and particularly given that strength of volume growth in the premium segment, how confident are you in your ability to sustain growth at those sort of levels going forward, given that's quite a competitive sort of category you're involved in there?

Hey, Simon. Good morning. Thank you for the questions. In terms of shipments, the answer is very clear no. To make this more clear, we disclosed that, for example, in the U.S. we undershipped, so we sold more than what we shipped to wholesalers. The buildup for the World Cup will really happen more towards June than we could have done anything in the quarter one. No shipments ahead of time. This buildup should really be at the back end of quarter two, not sooner than that. In terms of Brazil, I always go back to the point in Brazil that it's a very competitive market, and we have very strong operations in Brazil, but we've been adjusting our portfolio over the last four years.

We are very confident that we have strong brands now being executed in the right way as we rebalance a little bit more, having a strong mainstream business, also strong premium brands. These brands now are growing and gaining share with accelerated momentum. The quarter one had a little bit of everything because the quarter one in Brazil had like an excellent carnival, then a very wet period at the beginning of January and during March. It was more really market share gains in the right segments, especially premium and super premium. I think that this now as we look forward in Brazil, we will count with same momentum behind our brands, and we are investing to continue to gain share and solidify our position there in premium.

The calendar for Brazil is very supportive for the year, so there is many holidays that are extended holidays in Brazil this year. At the middle of the year, we're going to have the World Cup. Let's hope for the best with the Brazilian team, so we can have some good moments of celebration there in Brazil. We'll continue to work to make this portfolio stronger, to maintain the level of execution that we have there, which has been very good in the last couple of quarters. Innovation has been playing a big role in Brazil, so we have some very strong products that we innovated in the last couple of quarters and years that are doing very well.

We are rolling out Flying Fish now in Brazil, which is a big bet as well in the Beyond Beer that can add plenty of consumers to the portfolio of brands that we have, and even more occasions for us to be close to consumers and to moments of celebration there. We feel good. Of course, we need to continue to monitor the industry while controlling what we can control, which is our own agenda and portfolio there in Brazil. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Richard Withagen with Kepler. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, Michel. Hi, Fernando. I have a question on Corona. I mean, the activation appears to have been very solid around the Olympics. Maybe can you explain a bit what has worked well in execution and what was less solid than you expected? What takeaways do you have from this to also execute well during the World Cup?

Thank you, Richard. The Olympics was very important for us as a platform to launch globally and really grow the Corona Cero proposition globally. This so far is working very well for both sides. For the Corona brand, because we now are present in many countries. Corona Cero is growing globally very well, we just this quarter now became leaders in value globally. We took the leadership now in seven out of the top 14 markets, and we continue to grow the portfolio overall double digits and is working very well for Corona, as well as with Michelob ULTRA Zero in the U.S., which is the brand we are using for Olympics in the U.S.

One of the most astonishing statistics from all of that was to see during the Winter Olympics in Italy, Corona and our zero alcohol, both the regular and zero alcohol, having 60% share of all beverage being sold in the concessionaires around the events. 60% when you include everything from water to soft drinks to coffee, and that was during the Winter Olympics. It's one more proof point that people really enjoy beer, that beer and sports go well together, and offering choices to consumer. Regular Corona and zero alcohol Corona is a winning proposition for everybody out there. When you think about that with the World Cup, I think that it goes back to the point that we are leveraging global scale.

We activated the Olympics globally, as we always did with FIFA, and we'll do again during the summer now with FIFA. We want to be on the anticipation of the games, so people can prepare, stock up for those that will watch the games at home with family and friends. We want to make a huge push on bars because the bars will be the places where people will get together to watch the games. There is nothing like watching your team around friends and family on a nice bar over a cold one. We're going to make a big push to support our partners so they can offer the best experience on the bars.

Of course, we'll be working in the local markets from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada to make sure that everybody that's coming to watch the games will have a great experience on the stadiums. We'll make sure that the concessioners are well equipped to deliver great experience there on the part that we can control, which is the beer. It's great to see the mega platform is working. The key behind that is the scale that we have, the ability to execute globally, and the ROI on this is being very good because the brands are executing very well and consumers are giving their vote to the brands that we are using. Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Chris Pitcher with Rothschild & Co. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks very much. Good afternoon, Michel, Fernando, Shaun. Can I ask about South Africa?

There's been a lot of focus today on the strength of your portfolio and the mix that's coming through, particularly from revenue management. In South Africa, it looks like revenue per hectoliter was below the rate of inflation, despite, I believe, a stronger performance from Beyond Beer products, which should, in theory, be accretive to mix. Can you give a bit more detail on why revenue per hectoliter was a bit more subdued in South Africa? Could I just confirm, India looks like it was up about 30%. It was probably one of your top three volume contribution markets. It gets a specific reference from Budweiser, but not from you guys yet. It looks like it could well be into a period now where it's contributing to group growth, and it looks like it's moved into profit.

Could I confirm both of those? Thanks.

Yes, Chris. Thank you for the question. South Africa, great momentum, all-time high volume for the quarter one with beer. Our Beyond Beer portfolio is growing very well. We have our revenue agendas that are working well there on facings through the year on the pricing and the investment that we've been making, both in terms of sales and marketing. We are very confident that the agenda will continue to work well there, as have been working over the years. As a matter of fact, our prices are in place, and there is a health revenue coming from this price there. When you think about India, we comment about that in some of the calls, I thank you for asking the question because it gives me an opportunity to talk a little bit more about India here.

Too many countries that we often talk about. India has been a great story in which the industry has been growing consistently, some ups and downs, but when you look more and you take the long term, it's an industry that's been growing high single digits, almost double digits. Quarter one happened to be a double-digit industry. It's a place where we have an incredible portfolio of brands. It's today a top five market for Budweiser globally and becoming like a top three this year, probably. Budweiser has strong growth momentum there. Our share is approaching 20% on the market. It's all organic growth, mostly on the premium and super premium segment, so the brands are working very well. Our growth was really strong. It was above 30%, as you mentioned, and we keep investing to the long term.

As the industry continues to expand, per capita is very low, the headroom for growth is immense, the strength of our portfolio there is something that we have been building for over 10 years now. We are really playing the long-term game there, we are happy with the execution. There's way more that we can do to improve the industry collectively because it's not a one-player game for this industry to unlock there. On our side, portfolio is strong, momentum is good, execution is very good, the team is locked in pursuing our 10-year plan ambition there and transform this in a meaningful market for us at AB InBev. Good business, good portfolio, profitability improving, a very long game that we're playing there because per capita is still very low.

As people get wealthier, as the barriers around the industry start to be unlocked, that's a huge future growth opportunity for all of us. Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Our final questions will come from the line of Trevor Stirling with Bernstein. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, Michel, Fernando and Shaun. Just one from my side, please. I was really struck by the continued very strong growth in BEES, and particular on the platform and the 3P side of the business. I'm just wondering maybe one more for Fernando, is that starting to be a meaningful contributor to your revenue per hectoliter growth in Brazil, or is it still a little bit too small to move the needle?

Hi, Trevor. Yes, it's a good growth, kind of the business is growing well. It's, as you said, it's a business that is positive in EBITDA, positive in cash flow, but is it still I think, all the other components are far more relevant so far as contributors to the net revenue per hectoliter agenda. Michel?

Just maybe to add on your point, Trevor, the growth continues to accelerate on this marketplace. Just to ground everybody around that, the 3P, which is selling through the platform, third-party products, is where we see most of the growth. In this case, we are still scratching the surface. We know that the total addressable market is a multiple of what we are capturing today. Of course, this 50%-60% growth that we have is a way for us to continue to get more of that. As Fernando said, cash is positive, EBITDA is positive, and the margin of the 3P is very big. Today is a small component of the overall business, a growing one over time.

Is the most mix that we see today is mix from brands that comes from premiumization and from Beyond Beer. As time goes by, BEES will become a more meaningful contributor on this mix components of our revenue growth. Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Very helpful context.

Thank you. This was the final question. If your question has not been answered, please feel free to contact the investor relations team. I will now turn the floor back over to Mr. Michel Doukeris for closing remarks.

Thank you. Thank you everyone for your time today, for the ongoing partnership and support for our business. I hope that you are doing well. For those in the north preparing for summer and grabbing some beer to cheers. For everybody else, of course, join us on the excitement for FIFA that's right around the corner, and for a great summer, great games, and great moments of celebrations. Cheers.

Thank you. This concludes today's earnings conference call and webcast. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.