Heineken sold less beer in the first three months of this year but offset the downturn with higher prices, the brewing group said in a trading update on Wednesday.

Group sales reached over €3bn, a 24% increase on the year-earlier period. But that was before Heineken took over British brewer Scottish & Newcastle and several other small breweries. Exclusive of acquisitions, sales were down 1%.
Beer volumes overall were down 6.3%, Heineken said.