E-Malt.com News article: 2590

Australia: Adelaide’s Coopers Brewery has repaid an $8 million State Government loan it received to help with construction of its new brewery seven years ahead of schedule as a result of booming sales of its products around Australia, the company said in a press release. The final payment of A$6.6 million was on Friday, April 30.

Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said the 10-year loan had been made through the Government’s Industrial and Commercial Premises Corporation, now part of the Land Management Corporation. “The loan was at commercial rates and was of significant assistance in helping us fund construction of the new brewery, which cost about A$40 million,” he said.

“In early 2000, we were very anxious about whether we could afford to fund the entire expansion project. The State Government’s approval of the loan gave us the confidence to proceed with the full relocation of the brewery. “Since the first brew here in March 2001, we have experienced sales growth well in excess of our early estimates. As a result, we are now in a position to repay the loan far earlier than scheduled.”

The Regency Park brewery, which is located on the site of a former State Transport Authority bus depot, was officially opened on November 21, 2001.

Dr Cooper said the Government loan had been secured against a portion of the Regency Park land and the new buildings required for the relocation. While this had not prevented any further development from taking place, it was decided to repay the loan as quickly as possible to give Coopers full control of the property.

Dr Cooper said other loans taken out to fund construction were also being paid off ahead of schedule and Coopers anticipated all funding for the brewery would be fully repaid by early next year. “Our old brewery at Leabrook had been operating at full capacity in the latter part of the 1990s, and this had been holding back our development,” he said.

“Since the move, the cap has come off the bottle and we are enjoying one of the strongest periods of growth in our history.” Dr Cooper said in the three years Coopers had been at Regency Park, the volume of beer produced at the brewery had risen by 38.7% while extracts had increased 9.8%.

In the first nine months of the 2003-04 financial year, Coopers beer sales nationally soared by 16.2%, with sales of kegged beers in the eastern States up by almost 50%.

Dr Cooper said this rate of growth was being maintained and had resulted in significant additional capital expenditure, including new fermenters and packaging equipment, to meet continued growth.

Sales had also been boosted by the success of distributor Premium Beverages, a joint venture between Coopers and American Beverage Distributors Pty Ltd which holds the licence to distribute Budweiser in Australia.

Premium Beverages handles the national distribution of Coopers’ beer products outside South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Australia’s family owned Coopers brewery has reported buoyant sales, a 16% rise to A$49.9m (US$36m) in the first nine months of the year. Managing director Tim Cooper forecast full year sales of 37m litres worth A$60m.

In three years since it opened a new brewery in Adelaide beer sales have risen by 39%. But Coopers remains a minnow next to Fosters and Lion Nathan. “We hope to gain 3% of the national beer market by 2007 to reach 50 million litres a year,” Cooper said.


04 May, 2004