Brewing group Heineken booked sales of €6.1bn in the first six months of this year, a 6.8% rise on the 2006 first-half. Operating profit was up 24% to €906m.

Heineken said it expects sales volume to continue rising in the second half, but more slowly than in 2006. The brewer is maintaining its earlier forecast of a full year increase in earnings from ordinary operations of between 20% and 25%.
However, the target of selling one million hectolitres of beer in the US would not be met, chairman Jean- Francois van Boxmeer told ANP. Heineken books 70% of its earnings in the US and Europe.