Australia’s third largest brewer, Coopers Brewery, has enjoyed its second consecutive year of double digit growth with total beer sales rising 16.4% during 2003-04. In the 12 months to June 30, 2004, Coopers sales of bulk, or kegged, beer rose by 26.4%, while packaged beer sales were up 14.1%. Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said the results had been fuelled by growing demand nationally for premium beers, which currently make up about 8% of the total Australian beer market.

“Coopers has always positioned itself at the premium end of the market and is now benefiting as consumers increasingly turn to these products,” he said. “Our new brewery at Regency Park is almost constantly being upgraded to enable us to meet this growing demand, while we are also benefiting from new distribution arrangements interstate which have resulted in more and more hotels putting Coopers’ beers on tap. “Our aim in the next few years is to balance our performance interstate so that it accounts for 50% of total sales.”

Coopers Marketing Director and Chairman, Mr Glenn Cooper, said that demand for Coopers Pale Ale in particular had been outstanding in the past 12 months, but strong growth had been experienced in all traditional ale lines. He said that the rapid interstate growth had significantly reduced Coopers’ dependence on its home market of South Australia. “While our sales in South Australia rose by a very pleasing 10.5% last year, the State’s contribution to total sales actually fell by almost 3.5% to 63.7%, showing the impact of outstanding results interstate,” he said.

Mr Cooper said interstate growth ranged from 42.3% in the Northern Territory to 26.1% in New South Wales, 26.4% in Queensland, 32.8% in Victoria and 33.2% in Western Australia. “Sales of kegged beers are even more startling, with increases of almost 122% in the Territory, 55.1% in Western Australia, 53.4% in New South Wales, 46.9% in Victoria and 45.8% in Queensland. Sales in South Australia were up 19.8%,” he said. Mr Cooper said Coopers was planning for continued solid growth in 2004-05 with the aim of lifting its share of the total Australian beer market from its current level of about 2.3% to 4% by 2012.

13 July, 2004