Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer based in Leuven, Belgium, reported its second quarter and half year 2009 results on August, 13.

The company’s consolidated revenue grew 1.4% for 2Q09, reaching USD9.501 bln. The increase in revenue per hectolitre of 4.3% reflects effective revenue management programs. Consolidated revenue in HY09 grew 2.9% to USD17.698 bln, and 5.0% per hectolitre.

Cost of Sales (CoS) for 2Q09 decreased 5.6% overall, or 2.4% per hl, led by procurement best practices and brewery productivity enhancements (VPO). In addition, in 2Q09 the company began to benefit from lower spot prices for non-hedgeable input costs, and favourable transactional currency impacts. CoS per hl benefited from favourable geographic mix as Latin America North, with a lower CoS per hl than the group average, grew faster than Zones with higher CoS. In HY09, CoS decreased 3.1%, and CoS per hl slightly declined by 0.2%.

Aggregate operating expenses fell 3.9% in 2Q09 and 5.2% in HY09:

• Distribution expenses for 2Q09 decreased 14.6% in 2Q09 and 13.5% in HY09, due to synergy generation in North America, lower tariffs in Central and Eastern Europe, and lower fuel and transportation costs in most Zones except Latin America South; • Sales and marketing expenses fell 6.4% in ...More Info

Cia. de Bebidas das Americas (or AmBev), Latin America’s biggest brewer and part of the Belgian AB InBev, announced on August, 13 its second-quarter results.

The company said it closed the first half of 2009 with another strong quarter, delivering year to date EBITDA of R$4,966 million, an organic growth of 15.1%, exceeding the company’s expectations given the continuing challenges to industry volumes across the countries it operates other than Brazil, where disposable income and overall macro-economic environment remain positive.

The combination of AmBev’s operations in Latin America North (LAN), Latin America South (LAS) and Labatt business units, eliminating intercompany transactions, comprise its consolidated financial statements.

AmBev consolidated delivered normalized EBITDA of R$2,383.1 million in the second quarter of this year with margin expansion of 230 bps. Top line growth continued to exceed volume growth and the brewer’s COGS/hl (Cost of Goods Sold) further improved from first quarter trends. However, investment phasing and higher accruals for variable compensations due to a very tough comparison in Brazil adversely impacted the operational leverage in the period, the company said.

The year to date EBITDA totalled R$4,966.0 million representing a growth of 15.1% and a margin expansion of 240bps to 45.1%.

Operating cash flow generation was ...More Info

Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. (CCA), Australia’s biggest soft-drink maker, reported on August, 13 the first half operating results of its Pacific Beverages joint venture with SABMiller Plc.

Pacific Beverages delivered strong volume growth of more than 50% in its premium beer brands as a result of increased availability through CCA’s large customer network and the successful launch in March of Peroni Leggera, Australia’s first premium international low-carb beer.

Pacific Beverages’ premium beer brands now account for over 8% of the Australian premium beer market by both volume and value (Nielsen data) and Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Miller Chill are now firmly positioned in the Top 15 premium beers in Australia.

The strong growth in Pacific Beverages’ premium international beer brands was led by Peroni Nastro Azzurro with over 40% growth and Miller Genuine Draft which grew by more than 20%. Peroni Leggera continues to perform very well with strong repeat orders in both the on-premise and off-premise channels, CCA said.

Bluetongue, Pacific Beverages’ major Australian premium beer brand, delivered very strong growth of over 60%, largely as a result of increased availability.

Construction of the new $120 million Bluetongue Brewery on the Central Coast of NSW remains on track for completion during the first half ...More Info

Danish brewer Royal Unibrew announced on August, 12 that it has entered into a conditional agreement with the Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana (CND) brewery in the Dominican Republic to sell its shares of the breweries in Dominica, St. Vincent and Antigua to CND.

Furthermore, an agreement has been made with CND for licence production of Royal Unibrew’s Vitamalt brand, which will result in Vitamalt gaining ground in the region.

The selling price of the shares is equal to their carrying amount, Royal Unibrew said.

The sale comprises Royal Unibrew’s shares of St. Vincent Breweries Ltd. (76.5%), Antigua Brewery Ltd. (93%), Antigua PET Plant Ltd. (75%) and Dominica Brewery & Beverages Ltd. (58%).

The total consideration for the shares amounts to USD31 million (DKK160 million). Moreover, the purchasers will take over the debts of the companies. On an aggregated basis, the transaction will reduce Royal Unibrew’s interest‐bearing debt by just below DKK 200 million. On a full‐year basis, the Group’s earnings (before minority shareholders’ share) will be reduced by DKK30 million (EBITDA) and DKK10 million (EBIT), respectively.

The agreements with CND, which is the market leader in the Dominican Republic, comprise partly sale of Royal Unibrew’s shares of the breweries in Antigua (including a soft drinks facility), Dominica ...More Info

Efes Breweries International N.V. (“EBI”) announced on August, 12 that the Board of Directors of its Russian operating subsidiary Moscow Efes Brewery (“MEB”) has resolved to purchase the 6.699% minority stake in Krasny Vostok Brewing Group (“KV Group”), which is held by Tradex Partner Limited Co. (“Tradex).

The total consideration is expected to be between US$30-30.5 million and will be finalized by the completion of the share transfer. The purchase will be funded by MEB’s own cash resources.

Tradex maintained a 6.699% share in KV Group by the time of EBI’s acquisition of KV Group in February 2006 and held a put option for its stake, which is exercisable until February 2010.

Following the completion of the purchase, MEB’s stake in KV Group will increase from 92.851% to 99.55%.

Krasny Vostok Brewing Group is based in Kazan, Russia. Its production capacity is about 10 mln hl. The Group owns two beer plants in Kazan and Novosibirsk as well as three malting houses in Kazan with annual production capacity of 93 thousand tonnes of malt.

Olvi Group (Finland) intends to acquire 75% of shares of the Belarusian Lidskoe Pivo Brewery, Peep Akkel, financial manager for the Baltic States and Belarus, was quoted as saying by BelaPAN on August, 12.

According to Mr. Akkel, the Finnish group now holds 51% of the brewery shares. “The acquisition process is moving on more successfully than we have hoped. We plan to publish the final results in September,” he said.

Mr. Akkel believes that the policy of developing local brands followed by Olvi in all its markets has been delivering strong results so far. Last month, Lidskoye Pivo increased beer output by 14% as compared to July 2008.

European maltsters have reacted to the news of new malting capacities coming on stream in South America by reducing their production last year, industry observers reported at the end of last month.

South America’s deficit of malt supplies is constantly being reduced, and the European maltsters want to avoid a price war and sales at counter margins, and so far they succeeded, albeit at much reduced profits.

Official statistics do not show yet a lower malt production in France – barley use July/May 1.342 mln tons vs. 1.328 mln tons last year – nor in the U.K. – barley use July/May 23 1.540 mln tons vs. 1.501 mln tons last year, probably due to new facilities added during the year.

It is more obvious in Germany, where production in July/April dropped from 1.580 mln tons of malt in 2007/08 to 1.554 mln tons this year.

All Mercosur malt factories are running at full capacity again, after an interruption caused by slow malt call-offs in recent months.

St. Petersburg's arbitrary court has dismissed a case by Baltika Breweries to Russia’s largest maltster Russkiy Solod (Russian Malt), RBC reported on August, 14.

Baltika Breweries demanded the invalidation of a RUB4 bln contract. The plaintiff claimed that the contract had been made on unfavourable for it conditions. The maltster, in Baltika’s opinion, took advantage of the brewer’s lack of possibility to find another malt supplier and imposed crushing terms on it. The brewer was forced to enter into a contract for 218 thousand tons of malt despite the fact that its real malt need was only 6 thousand tons. Besides, despite the fact that the average price per ton of malt in 2008 was RUB13.7 – 16.7 thousand, the contract price was set at RUB18 thousand per ton, Baltika said.

However, a sitting of the court did not sustain Baltika’s case on August, 4. The court said no evidence was afforded of force majeure or other factors as a result of which Russian Malt might have remained the only malt supplier on the market. The claimants’ commercial errors and resulting difficulties cannot be recognized as trying circumstances, the court said.

The court’s website displays Baltika’s petition of appeal against this decision ...More Info

Malting barley prices have decreased again this week on non-existing buyers’ interest, big European barley crop, resales, and first-hand offers pressing down the market, La Depeche informed on August, 14.

All bearish elements united, the deals are very rare. Market players report nevertheless a good demand for deliveries in 2010.

State food agency FranceAgriMer has revised upwards its estimate of the nation’s barley production for this year, Euro Investor communicated on August, 11.

France’s total barley production is expected to reach this year record 12.8 mln tons versus 12.2 mln tons forecast last month. Winter barley harvest is finished; production reported at 9.1 mln tons. Malting barley quality is characterised as “very good”.

Spring barley harvest is still going on in the north, production is expected to amount to 3.7 mln tons.

Ukraine plans to boost exports of barley, wheat and other crops to Asia, Africa and Europe, drawing from a grain harvest that may reach 45 million metric tons this year, Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on August, 13.

“We want to secure a decent rank for Ukraine amongst the world’s biggest grain exporters,” Danylyshyn said. “We have a significant export potential and can be an active player on the world’s markets, including oilseeds.”

Ukraine, the world’s biggest barley exporter, restricted grain shipments in 2007 and last year, attempting to curb inflation. Ukraine reaped a record 53 million tons of grain last year, according to the Agriculture Ministry’s Web site.

B.G. Osborne, G.P. Fox, A.M. Kelly and R.J. Henry

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 113(2), 135–141, 2007 The Single-Kernel Characterization System (SKCS) 4100 was used to test whole grain barley from a replicated breeding trial across two environments and two seasons. Hardness was calculated from a crush response profile of the resistance to shell and endosperm crushing as a function of time. This rheological data recovered was averaged over 300 grains for each sample then partitioned into genetic, environmental and error components in order to calculate the genetic components and heritability. The results demonstrated a high level of genetic variance for all rheological parameters at all sites and years. In addition, the heritability was also moderate to high (68% to 90%) for the SKCS hardness and the rheological parameters that had been previously shown to provide information about endosperm modification during malting. Since the rheological information is recovered for individual grains within a sample, the SKCS 4100 may provide a new tool for screening breeding material for uniformity of quality. Key words: Barley, grain rheology, malting quality, plant breeding, SKCS Load full article, 7 pages, 715 kb , PDF file