InBev S.A. announced on October 21 that its Bulgarian subsidiary will cease brewing operations in the Pleven brewery, one of its three Bulgarian breweries, on October 21, 2005, and transfer production to the remaining two breweries.

After an extensive review of its Bulgarian operations, which took over a year to conduct, InBev has decided to optimize its production activities by the end of 2005. The decision to transfer brewing and packaging operations to the two other sites is based on excess capacity, and on the disadvantages which this creates. The Pleven site will continue its production of malt; sales and distribution activities, as well as logistics operations, will also continue.

Ninety eight employees will be affected by the closure, and will be provided fair severance packages as well as support services.

As a result of the Pleven Brewery restructuring, new investments will be made, and new jobs will be created in both the Plovdiv and Haskovo breweries.

All necessary steps will be taken to ensure that the Pleven brewery production is transitioned to the rest of the Distribution centers network before the transfer of production assets takes place. The normal supply of stock to the market will also be secured. ...More Info

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The world's third-largest beer maker, SABMiller Plc, told reporters that it will make a bid for the voting shares of Peruvian brewery, Union de Cervecerias Peruanas Backus y Johnston SAA that the company does not already control. Cheswick Comercial SA, which holds around 20 % of the class A voting stock in Backus, has agreed to tender its stock.

SABMiller will offer $25.34 in cash for each of the shares, according to a Regulatory News Service statement released today by the London-based company. The London-based group and the U.S. No. 2 brewer Miller, which it bought in 2002, said the cash needed to buy the rest of the stock was expected to be around $478 million.

SABMiller already owns about 79.7% of Backus, Peru's largest brewer, via its merger with Bavaria, the second largest brewer in South America, which was completed earlier this month.

SABMiller has been busy building up a foothold in South America in a bid to rival InBev, the world's largest brewer formed in 2004 when Brazil's AmBev merged with Belgium's Interbrew.

SABMiller now has close on 100% of the markets in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, as well as 90% market share in El Salvador and Honduras leaving InBev ...More Info

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San Miguel communicated that its beer sales outside the Philippines increased by 9 % year-on-year to USD 181.7 million in the eight months to the end of August, a 13-% rise in sales volume, according to the Xinhua Financial News agency as of 24 October 2004.

San Miguel said in a statement "Robust sales in Indonesia and Australia continued to support the international beer's positive performance" Its Indonesian subsidiary PT Delta Djakarta Tbk posted a 31-% rise in sales revenue to 347.5 billion rupiah in the January-August period as volumes sold rose 24 % from the same period last year.

J. Boag and Son Ltd, its wholly-owned subsidiary in Australia, posted a 13-% rise in revenue to 61.2 million Australian dollars on the back of a 16-% rise in sales volume. Sales in China rose 13 % in volume terms, although no financial details were provided.

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Sleeman Breweries Ltd. announced on October 24 that the Company lowered its outlook for expected earnings per share excluding non-recurring items (“normalized earnings per share”) to between $0.81 and $0.85 for its 2005 fiscal year.

The principle reason for the lower outlook is the increase in competitive pricing activities, particularly in the Ontario and Quebec premium markets, but also in Eastern and Western Canada, in the value segment, where small brewers benefit from tax subsidies.

“While we are pleased with the preliminary information on our third quarter and are confident about continued growth in the fourth quarter we have revised our previous guidance due to increased competitive price activities in the Canadian beer market and their estimated impacts on our prospects for the remainder of the year,” said John Sleeman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“At the same time, we believe the actions we are taking to reduce our production, distribution and selling, general and administrative costs coupled with the introduction of new products and sales and marketing programs as well as our new Femsa contract leave us well positioned to return to more traditional growth next year. Sleeman is a profitable company that remains committed to growing long term shareholder ...More Info

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Russian breweries produced more beer in January-September 2005, they increased the beer output by 4.6% year-on-year to 69.4 million hl, The Russian Brewers' Union communicated on October 24 citing the Federal State Statistics Service.

According to the statement of Russian Brewers' Union, the beer production growth rates were higher in January-September 2004, when they stood at 12.9% year-on-year.

"The drop in beer production growth tempo was the result of restrictions on advertising that took effect in September 2004 in addition to the passing of the anticipated inflation level for excises on beer in 2005," the Union stated.

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Anheuser-Busch the main rival of Miller Brewing, is intending to increase its marketing to Hispanics, about a year after Miller began a major push to conquer this market segment. Milwaukee Journal reported on October 25 that Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser and Bud Lite, is increasing spending in its advertising to Hispanics by 66 %. The St. Louis-based company plans to spend $60 million on Hispanic media in 2006, about 11 % of its estimated $550 million total advertising budget in 2004.

The brewer Anheuser-Busch holds about a 50 % market share in the United States and is the top brewer in the Hispanic market through its 50 % ownership in Mexico City-based Grupo Modelo, which exports five brands, including Corona products, and is the exclusive importer and distributor of Anheuser-Busch's products in Mexico.

In an attempt to capture a larger share of the Hispanic market, Milwaukee-based Miller started a major marketing effort in late 2004 to reach that audience. Miller's efforts include an October 2004 advertising and marketing arrangement with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc., Los Angeles, worth more than $100 million; and sponsorship of a November 27, 2004, boxing match between super lightweights Marco Antonio Barrera and ...More Info

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German analysts reported initial malt sales for the barley crop of 2006, for delivery in 2007. The reported price range from € 245.- to € 265. According to industry specialists this price range sounds too wide and therefore almost unbelievable, but at least those prices would be higher than the € 225.- / € 230.- of crop 2005 malt

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The EU Grains Management Committee rejected all bids to export free market barley this week. They approved bids to export a total of 189.8 TMT of intervention barley stocks this week at minimum selling prices ranging from 95.53 to 97.16 euros/MT.

They also approved 649 MT of intervention barley stocks be released for Spain at a min. selling price of 87.50 euros/MT. The Japanese Agriculture Ministry (MAFF) didn’t purchase any barley in their weekly tender.

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The Ukrainian hop acreage fell by 26% from 2003 to 2004. The reduction in acreage applied both to aroma hops and to bitter hops, according to Barth Report.

The most widely grown varieties remained Klon-18 in the aroma hop category and Polski among the bitter hops.

In 2004 the yield per mt/ha was significantly above the long-term average. The alpha content of the crop was below that of the previous year: aroma hops 3.1% (3.7%), bitter hops 6.4% (7.5%).

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