Czech state-owned brewer Budejovicky Budvar, or Budvar, has stepped up exports of its Czechvar lager to Canada while it continues to wage a legal battle over Budweiser and Bud trademarks with Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dow Jones reported on November, 23.

In January through September Budvar boosted its beer shipments to Canada 21% on the year to 7,000 hectolitres, reaching the same level of exports there recorded in all 2008, the Czech company said.

Budvar - based in the southern Czech city of Ceske Budejovice, called Budweis in German - has been engaged in a century-long intellectual property struggle over the "Budweiser" and "Bud" trademarks and appellations of origin with US brewer Anheuser-Busch Inc., now part of AB InBev.

Legal battles between Budvar between Anheuser-Busch have intensified since the fall of the Iron Curtain.

In September, Budvar faced a setback when Europe's highest court issued a ruling that could end Budvar's attempts to use its Bud brand in Austria. The ruling could lead to reopening challenges by AB InBev against Budweiser and Bud trademarks currently held by Budvar in other countries, legal experts have said.

In Canada and US Budvar sells its beer under the Czechvar brand.

Malaysia’s leading brewer Guinness Anchor targets its activities squarely towards the Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian community bases, Charles Ireland, the brewer’s managing director, was quoted as saying by The New York Times on November, 24.

Guinness Anchor, which has the largest market share of the three brewers in Malaysia, recently celebrated Guinness’s 250th anniversary with a concert near Kuala Lumpur featuring the Black Eyed Peas. The company had to create a separate area where alcohol could be served and agreed not to use the word “Guinness” at the concert or in advertising promoting the event.

Initially, Muslims were not allowed to attend; however, the authorities later changed their minds. The concert did not sell out, but about 16,000 people went through the gates. It is not known how many were Muslim.

Despite such cultural challenges — and the fact that Malaysia has one of the world’s highest excise taxes on alcohol — beer consumption here has remained relatively steady in the last decade. Analysts and local manufacturers are cautiously optimistic that sales may gradually increase as the economy improves, disposable incomes rise and the population of 28 million people grows.

Euromonitor International, an independent market research group, has forecast that beer consumption ...More Info

A cost-cutting drive announced by the world’s second-largest brewer SABMiller plc is unlikely to affect its Australian joint venture with Coca-Cola Amatil, The Australian cited analysts’ opinion on November, 23.

SABMiller has unveiled a four-year restructuring program aimed at generating $US300 million in annual cost savings from 2014, following a 6 per cent fall in sales revenue over the six months to the end of September.

Australian analysts said Pacific Beverages, SAB's Australian alcohol distribution joint venture with CCA, was unlikely to be targeted by the efficiency drive because it did not represent a substantial cost to the company.

Pacific Beverages, which distributes SABMiller's Peroni, Miller and Pilsner Urquell beer brands, is building a $120 mln brewery on New South Wales's central coast to produce its own Bluetongue brand.

Diageo’s subsidiary Guinness Nigeria Plc reported a 34% decline in pre-tax profit for the three months to Sept 30, Reuters communicated on November, 23.

The company’s pre-tax profit amounted to 2.56 billion naira ($17 million) in the quarter.

Turnover rose 22 percent to 20.62 billion naira, the brewer said in a filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

US craft brewer Boston Beer has disclosed that its president and CEO has entered into a stock trading plan that would allow him to sell company shares, The Street communicated on November, 24.

The pre-arranged plan will allow Martin Roper, also a Boston Beer director, to sell 56,000 shares of common stock in the Boston Beer.

Roper would be trading the shares to raise cash and diversify investments. The idea behind such plans is to allow individuals to accumulate prudent and gradual asset diversification over time.

The Boston Beer shares will be obtained under the company's Employee Equity Incentive Plan and sold according to undisclosed trading prices and volumes that would be on file with the SEC.

Ukraine’s farmers may suffer from a loss of up to UAH115 mln as a result of a decreasing demand for malting barley, Interfax reported on November, 23.

The nation’s beer production is expected to shrink by 11% in 2009.

“At the beginning of this year, nobody could expect such a drastic market decline, as all the forecasts were made taking into account an excise duty of UAH0.31 per litre of beer. However, the excise was almost doubled in the middle of the year, so it turned out the forecast for barley use by maltsters was significantly overrated,” Galina Korenkova, general director of association of Ukrainian brewers Ukrpivo, said.

The unclaimed stock amounts to almost 300 thousand tonnes of barley and now farmers are selling their high-quality malting barley for feed use, she added.

If the current decline in the beer market persists in 2010, the nation’s barley acreage will be reduced, analysts said.

If the excise duty on beer is doubled again or the planned restrictions for the brewing industry approved by the parliament, farmers’ losses will be even more important.

According to Ukrpivo data, Ukrainian malt production increased from 75.8 thousand tonnes in 1998 to 541 thousand tonnes in 2008. In 2009, the nation’s malt ...More Info

Moscow’s Arbitrary court has confirmed the legality of a decree by Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service, according to which Russia’s leading maltster Russian Malt (Russkiy Solod) was fined RUB90 mln, Kommersant reported on November, 25.

The malting company was penalized for abusing its dominant position on the market by establishing a monopoly price on its malt in 2008.

The legal case was brought on the basis of an application on the part of Baltika Breweries.

S. Porretta and G. Donadini

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(4), 315–321, 2008 The aim of this paper is to understand the consumer’s attitude towards alcohol free beers in Italy by using a quantitative concept analysis. The method uses conjoint analysis with consumers of Italian beer, living in different geographical areas. Results show that packaging (RI = 56.24%) is the main attribute considered, followed by price, flavour, claims and colour. As far as part-worths are concerned, glass and twist-off caps are the utilities that most increase the preference. They are followed by malty and fruity characters, a price of less than 0.80 Euros, a remarkable body and intended for young adults. In contrast, plastics, a price of over 1.25 Euros, organic raw materials and imports showed the greatest negative impact on preference. These findings can be used as a base for new product development and for media communication purposes.
Key words: Conjoint analysis, consumer preference, no alcohol beer, quantitative concept analysis.
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