Quilmes Industrial (Quinsa) S.A. announced its results for the six months ended June 30, 2008, PRNewswire reported on August 14.

According to the report, the results of H1 are as follows:

• Normalized EBITDA increased 37.8% to US$ 342.0 million, from US$ 248.2 million in 2007. • Sales volumes increased 12.3% in the case of beer and 9.8% in soft drinks compared to the first six months of 2007. • Net revenues increased 30.7%. • Net profit after tax increased 47.9% to US$ 148.2 million for the first half of 2008.

Financial review – H1 2008

Beer volume sales increased to 9,538,000 hl from 8,497,000 hl a year earlier, reflecting an outstanding performance in all the countries where Quinsa operates.

Consolidated net sales increased 30.7%, based on the good volume performances and higher sales prices.

Gross profit increased to US$ 486.2 million from US$ 365.3 million a year earlier. This was largely the result of higher volume sales and prices in all of the company's operations, partially offset by higher costs for labour and raw materials.

Selling and marketing expenses increased 24.8% to US$ 162.3 million, due to the increase in volumes and freight costs. Overall, selling and marketing expenses declined as ...More Info

Ranked second on Russia’s beer market, InBev reported lower sales volume and lost its market positions because of falling sales in the low-price segment of beer, RBC Daily posted on August 15.

According to RBC, the company admitted the fact and stated that the growth of premium brands sales upon which the brewer concentrated its attention cannot compensate for the drop in the low-price beer sales.

Experts suppose, the causes lie with both the increased excise tax on beer (the tax has grown by 32% since the beginning of the year and actually moved cheaper beers closer to more expensive ones) and the growing demand for more prestigious brands in Russia.

Cheap beer held 52.6% of the general sales volume on Russia’s beer market in June 2007. In June 2008, however, its rate dropped to 50.4%. Over the same period, the share of premium and super premium beers grew from 12 to 13%.

InBev has been working in Russia for nine years. Its CIS producing capacities are situated mostly in Russia and partially in Ukraine. Consumers know InBev by such brands as Stella Artois, Beck’s, Staropramen, Brahma, Sibirskaya Korona, Tinkoff, Klinskoye, and Tolstyak. The company’s revenue constituted about €7 bln in ...More Info

Slavutich brewery owned by Carlsberg Group published the results of its activity in the first half 2008, the Ukrainian Kontrakty communicated on August 13.

Sales volume on the basis of quantities amounted to 4,140 thousand hl (+ 40% compared to the same period in 2007).

Sales volume in money terms constituted $223 mln (+ 68%).

EBITDA - $22 mln (+ 67%).

Operating profit: + $4 mln.

The company demonstrated good dynamics of development in the first half of 2008, despite the general slowdown of beer market growth. The H1 data do not fully reflect the situation since they show the results of the favourable for the industry “season period”. The traditional “season” in 2008 was not as positive for the company as in former years due to a rainy and cool summer.

Brands

Slavutich’s sales grew by 37% in H1 2008, with the market growth of 9%. The company’s market share has increased by 3.2% and is now 23.5%.

In June 2008, the company’s RTM trend of sales for the last 12 months surpassed 7 mln hl for the first time in its history. In 2006 the sales trend was 4.3 mln hl.

In H1 2008, sales of the brewer’s basic brand Slavutich grew by 100% (export not ...More Info

Danish brewer Carlsberg wants to unite its operations in the CIS, including major East European asset and top Russian brewer Baltika, Baltika's chief executive Anton Artemyev was quoted as saying by Reuters on August 14.

"Our current high priority goal is to unite operations in the countries in which Baltika is acting with other BBH companies... The main point is integration," Baltika CEO and Chief Vice President of Carlsberg said in an interview last week.

Carlsberg and Heineken bought Britain's Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) for 7.8 billion pounds ($14.85 billion) this year. The deal secured Carlsberg all of eastern European venture Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH), including control of its crown jewel, Baltika.

Unifying Carlsberg's ex-Soviet operations would include "the exchange of technologies, knowledge, experience and best practices. The other key point is synergy," Artemyev said.

Baltika sold 44.3 million hectolitres of beer last year and in the first half of 2008 had a 38 percent share of the Russian beer market.

According to Artemyev, Baltika is expected to soon outpace the Russian beer market's growth, but he declined to give an exact figure.

He predicts the beer market in Russia will increase by 5 percent this year and around 3 percent in 2009.

The CEO also said ...More Info

Anadolu Efes, Turkey's largest brewer, said it has agreed to purchase the Tekel beer brand from the country's biggest spirits maker, Mey Alcoholic Beverages, Turkish Daily News reported on August 19.

The companies will complete the transaction upon approval from the Competition Authority, Anadolu Efes said in a filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange, or IMKB, on August 15 after the markets closed. Mey had previously announced its decision to leave beer production. The firm has not brewed beer for the last two years.

Anonymous sources close to the companies assert that the cost of the deal was YTL 4.5 million. It is said that Mey, which had determined a higher value for Tekel beer, accepted the final amount to secure the survival of the brand.

The recipe of Tekel beer, Turkey's oldest and cult beer brand that started production in 1890, had been transferred orally up until now. The recipe was written down for the first time with its sale to Anadolu Group.

Market share

Tekel beer has a 1 percent share in Turkey's beer market, and produces 800-900 million litres annually, said Galip Yorgancıoğlu, chief executive officer of Mey.

He said many people were displeased by the fact that the ...More Info

InBev received a request for additional information, commonly referred to as a Second Request, from the U.S. Department of Justice under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 with respect to the previously announced combination with Anheuser-Busch, the brewing giant’s official site announced on August 18.

InBev said a request for additional information from the Department of Justice was "a normal and expected part of the regulatory process". The company it remains confident that the $52 billion deal will get approval. It intends to respond expeditiously to the Second Request and to work toward a prompt closing of the transaction.

Earlier in the day, Anheuser said in a regulatory filing that Chief Executive August Busch IV plans to enter into a consulting agreement with the combined company that will last through 2013.

Busch will also be a member of the combined company's board.

Part of the settlement includes a ‘non-disparagement’ clause which prevents Mr Busch, who initially opposed the sale, from talking down the deal at any time.

Demand for beer in Poland has been increasing gradually in recent years. In 2007 the volume of annual sales of beer increased by 8.4%, in comparison with 2006, to 35 million hectolitres, the Polish Market communicated on August 19.

Experts say despite the fact that this year is expected to bring a decline in the sales growth rate to 5%, the increase in beer consumption in Poland is still one of the most marked in Europe. In terms of the consumption of beer, Poland is surpassed only by the Czech Republic, Germany and Denmark. The Polish beer market is estimated to be worth approximately PLN 11bn (€3.3bn).

One of the reasons for the growing interest in beer among Polish consumers is the fact that their drinking habits have changed in recent years. As salaries and the quality of life improve, Poles are more frequently choosing light alcoholic beverages such as beer instead of strong spirits. This tendency matches changes in the lifestyle of Polish people, who now organise more weekend trips, barbeques, etc.

Furthermore, demand for premium beer is also increasing in Poland. Polish customers are becoming more demanding and are likely to choose high quality beers. In addition, the popularity of ...More Info

As the harvest progresses towards the north, China reports a better crop than last year, observers say.

Good quality barley is increasingly available from Gansu, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, and Chinese industries try to secure a maximum of local barleys, thereby curtailing imports.

However, Chinese malting barley, due to high transport cost from the production regions to the coastal maltings, is hardly less expensive than present levels of imported barley.

Malting barley prices continued to hold steady and feed barley prices levelled off after a significant decline in July, the Farm and Ranch Guide reported the situation as of August 15.

“On the feed barley side, the prices hit the skids and went down real hard and now we're in the ‘shock and awe' mode; farmers are seeing these lower prices and seeing some poorer quality out in western North Dakota,” said Randy Brag, manager of Valley Grain Services in Casselton. “Combine that with the fact that we just don't have the export business we had last year and we are probably looking at lower feed barley prices.

“And I don't think that is all bad, since it may be a benefit in moving the products. We will probably see a lot of feed companies looking to put barley back in the ration. Many took it out last year when it became higher than corn.”

That being said, the malting side of the barley market remains strong, with elevator board prices in the neighbourhood of $6.50 per bushel.

The difference between feed and malting barley prices has continued to widen in the last few weeks, just as the crop's quality seems to be one ...More Info

Harvesting of spring barley in Denmark and Sweden is just beginning, and quality and yield reports are variable, experts say.

As all European crops are better so far than earlier expected, there is hope that the same picture will develop in the Baltic region.

Initial results of Denmark are encouraging, reports from South Sweden sound a bit less good, and Finnish industries are sceptical about their prospects. In Poland spring crops look poor in the North and Centre, reasonably good only in the very South, it was reported.

Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia together harvested 7.4 mln tons of barley vs. 5.4 mln last year, it was reported.

Romania and Bulgaria are active in the export markets of feed barley through the Black Sea. Their malting barley supplies are sufficient to cover local demand, which is vitally important for maltsters, because the transport cost of imports from Western and Northern Europe renders their produce uncompetitive.

The Czech Republic has not completed its harvest, results of early planted barleys are very good with low proteins, but barley planted after the rain interruption in April is being combined now and may not be quite as good.

Western Slovakia fared also very well, but the South and East of the country suffered from heavy rains and lodging of grains before harvest.

The Czechs expect to have an export surplus of at least 200.000 tons, which will be marketed to their neighbours, mainly to Poland.

V. Psota, K. Vejražka, O. Famera and M. Hrcka

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 80–86, 2007 In a three-year period, protein content, polysaccharides and values of the selected malting parameters were determined in 12 varieties of barley. Hardness was assessed using the particle size index (PSI) and a Do-Corder apparatus (BRA). Significant differences in the levels of hardness between the varieties were detected. Hardness was affected by variety from 37% (PSI) and 71% (BRA). Significant correlations were determined between the PSI and extract content (0.64***), Kolbach index (0.66***), friability (0.57***), beta-glucans in wort (–0.51***) and colour of malt (0.57***). Significant correlations were found between BRA and content of non-starch polysaccharides in caryopses (0.64***), extract (–0.62***), Kolbach index (–0.70***), friability (–0.70***), beta-glucans in wort (0.79***) and wort colour (–0.56***). Correlation was determined between hardness and malting quality index (PSI 0.51***, BRA –0.71***). Key words: Barley, beta-glucans, Brabender, hardness, PSI, quality. Load full article, 7 pages, 129 Kb, PDF file