Inbev, brewer of Stella Artois, said on Thursday that its profits had dropped 11 per cent to 249 million euros, in the first quarter of 2008.

Inbev said that it had a difficult start to 2008 and blamed the loss on rising ingredient costs, such as barley malt and hops. Sales for the company actually rose by 4.8 per cent to 3.2 billion euros.

Carlos Britos, Inbev's CEO said, We believe that we have the right programmes in place to deliver stronger results in the following quarters.