Diageo plc is announcing its intention to make a capital investment of €650 million (£520 million) in a new world-class brewing centre of excellence in Ireland to support the growth and development of its global beer business, the company reported in a press release, May 9.

This proposal would result in the rejuvenation of the historic St. James’s Gate brewery and the construction, close to Dublin, of a new state of the art brewery, which would produce all beer types. It follows a comprehensive assessment of all brewing operations in Ireland, which was undertaken over the past 12 months. The assessment identified the optimum strategy to deliver the global competitiveness necessary for future growth and sustained success.

Commenting on the announcement, Paul Walsh, Chief Executive of Diageo plc, said, “This will be the single biggest capital investment made by Diageo in its supply infrastructure since the company’s creation 10 years ago and will enhance the cost competitiveness of our global beer operations. It represents a major vote of confidence in our beer business and in Ireland as a global brewing centre of excellence for our company.

“This proposal will support the long-term success and growth of Guinness around the world, as well as ...More Info

Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd (APB) closed its first half of the financial year ended 31 March 2008 on a strong note, according to company’s press release, May 9. Versus the corresponding period last year, Group Profit before Interest and Taxation (PBIT) grew 14% or S$20.4 million to S$169.0 million. Excluding translation difference and gestation losses*, PBIT rose organically by 19% to S$179.5 million.

Attributable Net Profit before Exceptional Items (APBE) stood at S$90.4 million which is 14% or S$11.2 million higher than the same corresponding period last year. Without taking into account translation difference and gestation losses*, APBE grew organically by 20% to S$96.8 million.

Group revenue for the same period increased by 14% to S$1.06 billion.

Earnings per share before exceptional items rose from 30.7 cents to 35.0 cents.

The Directors have recommended an interim dividend of 14 cents per share, 1 tier tax exempt, to be paid on 10 June 2008.

Mr Koh Poh Tiong, Chief Executive Officer, APB said, "Our results were very satisfactory and demonstrated the resilience of our core business in the face of pressures from severe competition and significant increases in raw material prices. As a cluster, IndoChina (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) continued to be the star performer, accounting ...More Info

Efes Breweries International (EBI) plans to purchase another big Georgian Brewery, the media reported May 12. In February, 2008 Efes has already bought the largest beer producer in the country, Lomisi Brewery. Now it is going to buy the second largest brewery, Kazbeghi. The negotiations started two months ago.

The Kazbeghi’s owner, Goghi Topadze said the parties haven’t reached an agreement yet, and the negotiations stopped. But they can continue if the Turkish company improves the conditions of the deal.

According to the experts, if Efes Breweries acquires Kazbeghi, it will become the beer market leader.

Czech brewery Plzeňský Prazdroj has raised sales of its Pilsner Urquell beer in Canada by dozens of percent in the past few months thanks to the World Ice Hockey Championship the country is hosting, according to Czech Business Weekly, May 12.

Prazdroj has exported 21,000 hectoliters of beer to Canada in the past 12 months, a growth of 10 percent year-on-year.

Worn out by the high taxes imposed by the government on the beer sector, Danish brewer Carlsberg Breweries decided to leave the Turkish market in which it operates under the name Tuborg Carlsberg, Turkish Daily News reported May 10.

Carlsberg lauched negotiations with CBC Group, its partner in Romania and Israel, and signed a letter of intent to sell its 95.65 percent stake at Türk Tuborg that has been posting losses for the past seven years. Besides the 35 percent private consumption tax and the 18 percent value added tax in the country, the competition that emerged with the emergence of two new market actors played a role for the Danish brewer's sale decision.

“The negotiations concerning our sale transaction are ongoing. However, there is not a definite agreement at present,� said Güven Erdal, Tuborg Carlsberg's Ankara representative. “Our stance concerning the private consumption tax was expressed many times. It is obvious that the tax creates a heavy burden for producers”.

Handover:

Türk Tuborg, which currently ranks second in Turkey's $1.6 billion beer market following Efes Pilsen, started its operations with Yaşar Group in 1967. During the 2001 economic crisis in Turkey, Yaşar sold 47.7 percent shares of the firm to Carlsberg. Having paid ...More Info

With two months to go in the crop year 2007/08 EU maltsters booked export licences for 1.565 versus 1.500 Mill. tons last year, analysts have recently reported. If the same pace of exports continued, the total of the year may reach 1.85 to 1.9 Mill. tons, 100 – 150,000 tons up from last year, but a long way down from numbers like 2.3 – 2.4 Mill. tons of a few years ago.

Nevertheless the EU malting industry is completely sold out for 2008, because of the known capacity closures of past years. Another reason of smaller exports to third countries has been the accession of 10 countries to the EU in 2004 and two more in 2007, which changed their statistical status from exports (and imports) to domestic business.

Amongst the large exporting countries Germany has regained much ground lost during temporary shut-down of the Weissheimer plants. France fixed only 313,000 tons of export licences, far behind the pace of last year; it is possible that licences for French exports are fixed in another member state Belgium.

Planting of spring barley is finished in the EU except for small areas in Scotland and Sweden and all of Central Finland, analysts have recently reported.

Weather had turned warmer and dry enough to permit a very fast progress of seeding in Central Europe, Denmark, South Sweden, the Baltic countries and Scotland. At this moment crop prospects are very good.

In the traditional malting barley countries acreage of spring barley had dropped much during the past years, but at the same time the share of malting barley varieties has increased so that the EU will have a sufficient supply of malting barley, correct weather till harvest provided. Spring barley in Finland, Poland and Spain is principally feed barley, nevertheless supplies of domestic malting barley are abundant in Finland, however, normally tight in Spain and short of needs in Poland.

The Ukrainian Government distributed the quotas for export of 500.000 tonnes of barley, according to AgriMarket, May 12.

According to the report of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Economics of Ukraine, they distributed quotas for wheat and barley export for the period till July 1, 2008.

As for the barley export quota, the main grain volume is allowed for the export by companies Nibulon (195.400 tonnes) and Serna (126.800 tonnes). In total, the quota for barley export (500.000 tonnes) was distributed among 31 companies.

Let us remind that according to the resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers No 418 dd. April 23, 2008, the export quota for barley - from 400.000 tonnes to 900.000 tonnes.

Good rainfalls enabled barley planting in Western Australia, early prospects are good, according to analysts, May 2.

In the south and east there are pockets of sufficient precipitation, but also areas, which are too dry to commence seeding.

ABARE’s crop forecast is 9 Mill. tons vs. 5,915 Mill. in 2007/08, but this figure will depend on regular rainfalls, with six months remaining till the beginning of harvest.

Following the successful registration of the European protected designation of origin „ZATECKY CHMEL“ (Saaz hops) in May 2007 hops and hop products from the crop 2007 could for the first time carry the label with logos of ZATECKY CHMEL and European protected designation of origin, Hop Growers Union of Czech Republic has recently reported.

The European protected designation of origin „ZATECKY CHMEL“ (Saaz hops) was used for the first time in the processing season 2007/2008 on the hop products from Zatec

Many merchant companies used the opportunity in the last hop processing season and so for the first time in history the hop products from the Saaz variety grown in the Saaz hop growing region were delivered to the breweries with a unique label. In 2007 it was possible to place this label on hops grown in the Czech Republic in 138 villages with an acreage of 3642 ha. The majority of these hops were delivered to Japan.

The label with the logos of protected designation of origin was first introduced to the public during the Zatec hop festival – on the 1st Septemer 2007 by the minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic Mr. Petr Gandalovic, the vice prime minister for European ...More Info

Patricia L. Pratt, James H. Bryce and Graham G. Stewart

Abstract
J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 55–60, 2007 The yeast vacuole has been shown to exhibit morphological responses to environmental conditions when exposed to worts of different gravity during fermentation. Marked effects of high gravity wort (20° Plato) on yeast morphology compared to more conventional wort gravity (12° Plato) were observed. High gravity worts caused vacuolar enlargement compared to conventional gravity wort. These results suggested that yeast cells experienced severe alterations with the vacuolar tonoplast when exposed to high osmotic pressure and elevated levels of ethanol. Key words: High gravity wort, ethanol, morphology, osmotic pressure, vacuole, yeast stress. ... Load full article, 6 pages, 1972 Kb, PDF file