As the festive season gathers pace, families across Nigeria come together to eat, drink, and celebrate. Food and beverages sit at the centre of these gatherings. And every year, one segment of the consumer economy emerges as a clear beneficiary. Brewers and bottlers.
A BusinessDay review of quarterly financials shows a consistent seasonal pattern. Revenues for publicly listed brewers spike sharply in the fourth quarter. This is when Christmas, end-of-year parties, and social gatherings reach their peak. Alcohol consumption rises across the country.
For Nigerian Breweries, the effect is pronounced. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the company reported a 71 percent increase in revenue compared to the previous quarter. Sales accelerated as festive demand kicked in. The pattern was similar a year earlier. In 2023, Nigerian Breweries posted a 59 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in revenue between Q3 and Q4.
This performance is not an anomaly. A review of earlier years shows the same trend. In both 2022 and 2021, the company’s strongest revenue numbers also came in the final quarter of the year. The festive boost has become structural rather than episodic.
International Breweries tells a similar story. In 2024, the brewer recorded a 21 percent increase in revenue between the third and fourth quarters. Demand strengthened as the year drew to a close. The festive season remains the company’s most commercially significant period.
Profitability often improves alongside revenue. Gross profit typically rises in the fourth quarter. Higher sales volumes and better capacity utilisation support margins. Although costs also climb, the surge in turnover usually outweighs these pressures.
Analysts say the trend reflects consumer behaviour. December is packed with weddings, funerals, end-of-year parties, and religious celebrations. Distributors increase activity. Brewers push premium brands and larger pack sizes. Pricing power improves during this window.
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Although Nigeria’s largest bottlers, Nigerian Bottling Company and Seven-Up Bottling Company, do not publish publicly available financials, the festive-season pattern is no different from that end of the market.
December remains their most important sales window. Soft drink consumption rises sharply as homes stock up for Christmas, parties, and end-of-year gatherings. Demand is driven by volume rather than pricing, making scale critical.
Marketing spend during this period reflects those expectations. Coca-Cola, whose products are bottled locally by Nigerian Bottling Company, is the headline sponsor of Flytime Fest, one of Nigeria’s biggest end-of-year entertainment events. The sponsorship is not coincidental. It aligns with a period when beverage consumption peaks and brand visibility directly converts to sales.
The stock market has also been pricing in these seasonal gains. Investors have positioned ahead of festive demand, particularly in brewer stocks that offer clearer financial visibility.
In December 2025 alone, Guinness Nigeria Plc’s share price appreciated by 73 percent. On a year-to-date basis, the stock has surged by 312 percent on the Nigerian Exchange. The rally reflects improving earnings expectations, stronger volumes, and renewed investor confidence in consumer-facing stocks.
Nigerian Breweries has also seen significant gains. The stock is up 148 percent year-to-date. In December alone, it gained 19 percent. The share price moved from N66.75 to N79.50 as of December 22.
These gains underscore how closely festive consumption is tied to investor sentiment. For brewers and bottlers, the Christmas season no longer just shapes quarterly sales. It increasingly influences market valuation, trading momentum, and full-year performance expectations.