Subdued consumer confidence in Europe and the U.S. weighed on earnings at Heineken, the world's third largest brewer, but the chief executive told CNBC Europe's "Squawk Box." that emerging markets still offered growth potential.
"Asia is still going very strong as is Mexico for us," Jean-François van Boxmeer said, after operating profit in emerging markets grew 7 percent.
Heineken reported higher than expected first-half earnings with a surge in profit in developing economies and tight control of costs in mature markets helping boost the bottom-line.
The Dutch company said on Wednesday that its operating profit before one-offs grew 5 percent to 1.45 billion euros compared with 1.42 billion euros in a Reuters poll.
Bad weather in northern Europe and "subdued" consumer confidence dented demand, van Boxmeer said. The company said in a statement that "for the remainder of the year, economic uncertainty and ongoing weak consumer sentiment is expected to persist across many key markets."
"There are good things and bad things but overall, in a fairly challenging trading conditions, we posted a good result," van Boxmeer added.
Its shares dropped 2.9 percent after markets opened on Wednesday.
The company's western European revenues were helped by the introduction of an old favorite: beer mixed with lemon juice, known as radler or shandy.
"We started that innovation in Austria and [there] has been a tradition of beer and lemonade for a very long time and we have been tweaking the formula towards beer and lemon juice- it has been a phenomenal success in Austria and this year we have been rolling it out at the vast majority of western European countries."
