Australia: The equation is simple: the hotter the weather, the more beer people drink. December was the hottest in 130 years, and it showed up in beer sales, which jumped by up to one-fifth, Bloomberg revealed on January 7.

December sales at Coopers Brewery, Australia's third-biggest brewer, leapt 18 per cent to a new high, said managing director Tim Cooper.

Foster's and Lion, which account for about 97 % of the market, said hot weather boosted sales in a nation with the highest per-capita beer consumption outside Europe. Although a lot of sales would have been consumed at home, pubs, too confirmed the trend. "It's been a terrific summer," said Bill Bell, adding his Bell's Hotel in South Melbourne probably increased sales by at least a fifth last month.
"We had an enormous October and November. We're normally quiet in those two months and we had probably two of our best months."

Geoff Donohue, general manager of public affairs at Carlton & United Breweries, said there was a correlation between temperature and beer consumption.

December's average high was 27.2 degrees, 3.1 higher degrees than normal.

"Demand has been strong across the board, but draught beer has been particularly strong," he said. Despite buying 30,000 kegs, which hold 50 litres each, to deal with extra demand during rugby's World Cup, CUB still struggled to meet December's thirst. It had to deliver beer on Boxing Day, "which we don't normally do", Mr Donohue said.

Although CUB would not provide figures, Coopers said it sold 4.5 million litres last month, helped by a 24 % jump in demand in Victoria. Overall beer sales rose 0.2 % in the year to September.

13 January, 2004