Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB, or FEMSA, has confirmed being in talks "with several parties to explore opportunities involving its beer business" but added in its brief statement that "there can be no assurance that such discussions will lead to any definitive agreement", Reuters reported on October,1.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the brewer had talked with Britain's SABMiller Plc and Heineken from the Netherlands about a possible sale of beer operations that could be worth billions of dollars.

As earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal, a merger of FEMSA's beer operations with those of a larger international player would be valued at as much as $9 billion.

SABMiller declined to comment on the report, and officials at Heineken were not immediately available.

A deal with FEMSA could give an international player access to one of the region's most lucrative markets and create a formidable challenge to FEMSA rival Grupo Modelo, maker of the Corona brand.

Morningstar analyst Ann Gilpin guessed that SABMiller would be interested in acquiring FEMSA's beer assets, especially since the British company lost its title of world's top brewer last year.

"They used to be the No. 1 brewer in the world and then when InBev bought Anheuser-Busch they ...More Info

Dutch brewer Heineken N.V. announced on October, 1 that it has successfully placed 7-year Euro Notes for a principal amount of EUR400 million with a coupon of 4.625%.

Through this transaction, Heineken has taken advantage of strong credit market conditions and has improved further its debt maturity profile at attractive rates.

These Notes have been issued under the company's European Medium Term Note Programme and will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

The proceeds of the offering will be used to partially refinance existing debt and for general corporate purposes. The Notes were placed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Fortis Bank Nederland and ING Bank.

Heineken N.V. is one of the world's great brewers and is committed to growth and remaining independent. The brand that bears the founder's family name - Heineken - is available in almost every country on the globe and is the world's most valuable international premium beer brand. The company's aim is to be a leading brewer in each of the markets in which we operate and to have the world's most prominent brand portfolio. In 2008, the Company operated 125 breweries in more than 70 countries and sold 162 million hectolitres of ...More Info

In the beer industry, superior market share leads to superior margins, a recently published research by Rabobank Group states.

In the next five years, market share will become increasingly important for all the major brewers, Rabobank analysts forecast.

Major brewers’ operating margins have not suffered from the economic downturn. On the contrary, restructuring, better pricing and lower production costs have helped margins and cash flows, says Rabobank beverage analyst Cyrille Filott.

“The downturn has led to lower beer consumption, both at home and in restaurants and bars. This decline in consumption volumes has been mostly offset by an increase in prices. Most brewers raised prices last year and have not felt the urge to drive volumes higher in the current downturn by lowering prices,” says Filott.

In the near future, Rabobank does not expect brewers to lower prices in order to increase volumes. All four of the major brewers have a broad portfolio of beer offerings from premium to cheaper brands.

“Brewers would rather accept a switch by the consumer to a cheaper brand, also owned by the brewer, than to lower the price of their premium brand,” says Filott. “Possible price reductions by premium brands are likely to hurt the brand image, ...More Info

Danish brewer Carlsberg said it will continue to argue against a 200% increase in excise duties on beer, which the Russian government has just proposed to the State Duma, Dow Jones reported on October, 2.

The Copenhagen-based company, which has staked its recent strategy on growth in Russia, said the bill, which calls for a 200% hike next year, and increases of 11% and 20% in 2011 and 2012, will remain a draft until discussions between the State Duma and the Council of Federation have been finalized.

It may take several weeks until the bill is approved by Russian president Medvedev, it added.

"If implemented, I firmly believe that this bill will not only affect the brewing sector negatively, it will also have negative consequences for the Russian economy, and employment as well as for the foreign investment climate in Russia," said Anton Artemiev, Carlsberg Senior Vice President for Eastern Europe.

Carlsberg's exposure to Russia increased significantly after it bought part of U.K.-based rival Scottish & Newcastle PLC last year. The deal gave it full control of Baltic Beverages Holding, which had previously been a joint venture between the two companies.

At 1224 GMT, shares in Carlsberg were down 5.7% at ...More Info

Peter Swinburn, chief executive of Molson Coors, the US-Canadian brewer, expects further consolidation of the global beer market, “albeit at a slower pace” as the industry digests the impact of InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch and other big deals, The Financial Times reported on October, 1.

Mr Swinburn said he expected “an inevitable continuance of the consolidation”.

“I think we’re probably going to see a slowdown for the immediate future, because obviously there’s been some big acquisitions and some big moves in the last two years, and people, I think, are trying to digest those moves,” he said.

Molson Coors, the world’s fifth-largest brewer, was formed in 2005 from the merger of Canada’s Molson with the US Coors beer company.

It subsequently linked up with SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, in a US joint venture that combines the Coors and Miller beer brands.

Outside North America, it has a strong presence in the UK, where it produces Carling.

The company has also been seen as having a potential future interest in Foster’s, the Australian brewer, after taking indirect control of a 5 per cent share last year.

Mr Swinburn said Molson Coors was also in a position financially to make acquisitions “if the right opportunities come up”, including ...More Info

Crown Imports, the joint venture of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo and US wine and spirits maker Constellation Brands, which distributes Corona beer in the United States, saw its sales drop by 5% in the second quarter of fiscal 2010, Constellation Brands reported on October, 1.

Beer sales continue to be challenging in bars, restaurants and stores such as convenience stores. Crown Imports’ sales have now fallen in three consecutive quarters.

Constellation's equity earnings from its 50 percent interest in the venture totalled $72 million, a decrease of three percent from the prior year second quarter. For second quarter 2010, Crown Imports generated net sales of $693 million, a decrease of five percent, and operating income of $145 million, a decrease of three percent.

Crown Imports is beefing up advertising behind Corona and will introduce 24 ounce cans of Corona Extra and Corona Light in convenience stores. It also plans to do more advertising for the brands during National Football League games and the upcoming Major League baseball playoffs.

The activity in the EU malting barley markets remains limited to only 2010/2011 crop year, La Depeche reported on October, 2.

Most deals on malting barley are closed on the second half of 2010/11. Feed barley sees practically no demand.

Finding a market for malting barley and gaining a significant premium will be tough in 2009/2010, Farmers Guardia communicated on October, 2.

With current market levels for crop 2010 below the cost of production by up to £25/t for malting grades, growing malting barley is all about high risk and low reward, with winter wheat and oilseed rape offering better margins.

Spring barley plantings this year were up by as much as 30 per cent overall and the crop has performed well nationwide, with average yields but above average pass rates for malting - 97 per cent of spring barley crops planted were of malting varieties.

Localised quality issues in the south and west, Borders and central Scotland are more than offset by other regional gains.

Almost the whole spring malting barley crop is useable this year, industry sources report.

In Scotland less than three per cent of the crop has fallen below the 85 per cent retention standard and 65 per cent of production fits the first class distilling grade with 85 per cent usable as distilling types, meaning distillers are more than adequately supplied.

The demand outlook for 2009/10 is significantly altered with hitherto unseen levels of carry-out, falling consumption, poor performance in growth ...More Info

In 2009/10, Ukraine will become the largest barley exporter in the world, IDK.ru boldly forecast on October, 1.

Low domestic prices and poor crop at Ukraine’s main competitors makes it possible for the post-Soviet country to occupy more than one fourth of the global market. EU, Canada and Russia – Ukraine’s main rivals in barley trade – saw their barley crop decline in the current year by about 10-25% as compared to the previous season.

Ukraine’s barley crop, on the contrary, remained almost the same as last year’s 12.611 mln tonnes. As of September 1, Ukrainian farmers harvested 12.325 mln tonnes of barley, Economic Izvestia reported.

According to data provided by Ukragroconsult analysts, world’s total barley import will decrease this year as many buyers of the Black Sea barley (such as Iran, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) will be able to significantly satisfy their needs by domestic production. However, Ukraine’s position is expected to be positively influenced by the entry in the Japanese market (in July – August 2009, Ukraine for the first time exported 72 thousand tonnes of barley to Japan). According to experts, Japan’s import potential is estimated at 700 – 900 thousand tonnes.

Also, Ukraine is forecast to benefit from its ...More Info

R. A. Speers and Scott Stokes

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(2), 148–150, 2009 This paper statistically examines the effect of tank shape and size, fermenting volume and yeast pitching number on fermentation parameters routinely monitored in a series of industrial fermentations. With the fermenter tanks employed in this pilot study, little effect of tank shape existed between any of the parameters. The number of brews fermented or fermenting volume had a significant difference (p<0.05) on the apparent extract at 48 h, the final pH and the apparent degree of fermentation (ADF). Interestingly, the number of yeast repitchings (up to 13) did not show any effect on any of the parameters. We conclude, as have other studies, that the automatic practise of discarding the yeast crop after 10 fermentations (and the related expense of early yeast repropagation) could be questioned and is worthy of further study. Key words: beer flavour, fermentation kinetics, tank geometry. Load full article, 3 pages, 145 kb , PDF file