The annual net income of Foster's Group Ltd. fell 88% to A$117.7 million ($96.03 million) from A$966.2 million a year earlier, the company posted on its official site on August 26. Aside from the write-down, profit came in at A$713.2 million.

The full year significant items loss after tax was A$602.9 million.

Revenue for the full year fell to A$4.56 billion from A$4.76 billion in the year-ago period.

Australia's largest brewer drop in profit was caused by sliding sales at its Californian wine business and a strong Australian dollar, Reuters communicated.

This has been Foster’s first loss in 16 years.

In June, Foster's cut its profit outlook as it began a review of its underperforming wine business ranked second among world producers.

But better-than-expected beer sales helped Foster's beat analysts' reduced expectations and lifted its share 2 percent in a broader market that was 1 percent weaker.

Foster's said its Australasian beer business, which accounts for about 70 percent of group earnings, saw net sales rise 5.8 percent despite a decline in volume of 2.1 percent.

That pointed to stronger pricing and a growing shift to higher-margin premium brands such as Pure Blonde as consumers drift away from mainstream brands, a trend that has benefited rival brewer ...More Info

Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad reported a 56.2 per cent increase in interim pre-tax profit to RM56.175 mln (US$16.7 mln) in H1 2008 from RM35.971 mln for the first half of 2007, Asia Pulse communicated on August 25.

Performance was much better this year as the first six months of 2007 had suffered from a major restructuring exercise, the company’s filing to Bursa Malaysia stated.

Revenue increased 8.7 per cent to RM488.423 mln from RM449.134 mln for the same period last year, driven by higher domestic sales which has more than offset the significantly lower level of revenue from contract manufacturing of Carlsberg for the Singapore market (full impact from February 2008 onwards).

Earnings per share rose to 14.04 sen from 8.92 sen.

Carlsberg said its pre-tax profit fell 5.3 per cent to RM20.684 mln in the second quarter from RM21.845 mln a year before.

Revenue increased 1.5 per cent to RM198.990 mln from RM196.144 mln previously.

It said the growth in the first quarter of 2008 was an encouraging start to the year.

However, the recent fuel and diesel price hike and rising inflationary costs are expected to dampen sentiments and slow the growth.

With the ongoing implementation of the group's revised strategic plan, the increasing demand ...More Info

Yanjing Brewery, China’s third largest beer maker, posted its financial report for the six months ended June 30, 2008, Reuters communicated on August 25.

The company’s turnover amounted to 4,113.76 mln yuan (3,783.88 mln yuan in H1 2007).

Net profit constituted 254.64 mln yuan versus 193.45 mln last year.

Earnings per share grew to 0.231 yuan (0.176 yuan in H1 2007).

The H1 2008 assets per share constituted 5.08 yuan, while the 2007 rate was 4.80 yuan.

Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co is an indirect subsidiary of conglomerate Beijing Enterprise Holdings Ltd. The company published unaudited results, compiled under domestic accounting standards.

The company said it boosted profits by raising prices and adjusting its product line, in addition to expanding volume sales. Its beer sales in the first half rose 6 percent from a year earlier to 1.94 million kilolitres.

($1 = 6.83 Yuan)

Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh is expected to comment this week on growing speculation linking the spirits company with Heineken, Business Scotsman posted on August 25.

Analysts express strong confidence that Walsh will reveal further evidence that the future of Guinness lies outside the UK and Ireland as it looks to protect itself from declining beer markets in the UK by increasing its range of "super-premium" products such as Dutch vodka ADVERTISEMENT brand Ketel One.

Beer is moving rapidly down the path of consolidation and there are companies such as Heineken and SAB Miller that are the same size as Diageo, experts say.

David Liston, senior beverage analyst at Barclays Wealth, said: "Diageo's end game is to form a total alcohol company with beer, wine and spirits. What they are doing is waiting for the beer companies to sort themselves out and then it is not beyond the bounds of reason for them to merge with a company such as Heineken. Consolidation in the beer industry has a long way to go yet."

Walsh is set to deliver Diageo's target of 9% operating profit growth in full-year results due on August 28. Bernstein analyst Trevor Sterling predicts operating profits of £2.37bn compared with last ...More Info

Baltika Breweries completed the purchase of Baku-Castel Brewery in Azerbaijan, Baltika’s official site communicated on August 25.

After signing a contract with Brasseries Internationales Holding (Eastern) Ltd on 15 May 2008, Baltika Breweries received the official clearance from the State Antimonopoly Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The deal approved, shares belonging to the seller were re-registered as Baltika Breweries’ shares.

The production capacity of the Baku brewery amounts to 72 mln litres. Baltika Breweries announced it is planning to invest as much as $20 million in its reconstruction.

Baltika has been shipping beer to Azerbaijan since the year 2000 and there has been a positive growth trend in sales over the course of the last seven years. On the results of H1 2008, the Company’s export sales in the Republic of Azerbaijan rose by 46%, compared to the same period of 2007.

The Czech investment and construction company Ross Holding has announced plans to build and operate a new brewery in Chotěboř near Havlíčkův Brod, Radio Praha reported on August 22.

The new facility is to bring a yearly output of 10 to 25 thousand hectolitres. It will be the first brewery built from scratch since the establishment of Radegast in the 1970s. If everything goes according to plan, production of the new Czech beer brand should start next summer.

Today, there are about 50 industrial breweries and about 70 micro-breweries in the Czech Republic, which altogether produce some 20 million hectolitres of beer a year. Around 400 beer labels are available on the market. However, Roman Stryk, the head of the investment company Ross Holding is sure that there is a gap on the market for the new producer.

“We want to produce four to five brands of beer using the traditional Czech method. We don’t want to use the cheap method used by big breweries, which produce so-called Euro-beer. We want to make Czech beer. Our brewer says that it’s a fine beer with a full taste.”

The project was originally outlined by an English beer enthusiast called Ian Jeffrey, who had to sell ...More Info

According to the forecasts by the German Farmers’ Association (DBV), the total corn crop will amount to 47.2 mln tonnes in Germany this year, Zol.ru published on August 25.

This year’s harvest will be 17% more than in 2007 due to increase in acreage and crop capacity, experts say.

Winter barley is expected to yield 9.0 mln tonnes, and spring barley harvest is forecasted to amount to 2.5 mln tonnes.

Strong prices for wheat, corn, barley and canola boosted total market receipts for Canadian farmers by 12.4 per cent to $19.9 billion in the first half of this year compared with the corresponding period a year earlier, ReportonBusiness.com cited Statistics Canada on August 25.

“Crop receipts were up 30.8 per cent and stood 56.9 per cent above the previous five-year average for a January-to-June period, largely due to higher prices resulting from tight world grain supplies and strong demand,” Statistics Canada representative said.

Market receipts for barley were up by 60.7 per cent, it was reported.

Barley industry leaders aren't sure, how the merger of InBev and Anheuser-Busch will affect growers who have contracted with Anheuser-Busch, but they aren't expecting any radical changes in the short term, Capital Press informed on August 22.

"In our opinion, it would be crazy for the new combined company to dismantle its raw material procurement program that it has in the United States, including Idaho," said Kelly Olson, administrator of the Idaho Barley Commission.

InBev is "buying a mansion," she said. "Why would they burn it down?"

Anheuser-Busch is the largest buyer of Idaho barley. Global malt barley supplies are tight and InBev doesn't have its own procurement program, Olson said.

While there are "no guarantees," about the future, it would seem to be in the new company's best interest to keep Anheuser-Busch's malting barley contract program in place, she said.

"We don't anticipate there will be any big changes over the short term, but we don't know what the long term looks like," she said.

InBev's planned takeover of Anheuser-Busch, following the other mergers, has created a lot of uncertainty among growers.

"We are concerned because Montana has traditionally been a significant provider of malt barley to Anheuser-Busch through established contracts and open market purchases," said ...More Info