Top Industry News 

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• Singapore’s third biggest conglomerate, Fraser & Neave Ltd (F&N), reported on Nov-14 a 38% jump in full-year profit, propelled by higher sales ...more info



• The UK regional brewer and pub operator, Young & Co, announced on November 13 that it had registered a 7.1% rise in profit before tax to £5.0 million ...more info



• The UK brewing giant, Scottish & Newcastle, announced the pending resignation of one of its non-executive directors. Frank Riboud will stand down on 27 November ...more info



• The rating on SABMiller brewery was cut by the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston from "neutral" to "underperform" with a 480 pence share price target ...more info



• The Russian brewing force, Baltika Brewery, based in St. Petersburg, posted 3,789 mln rbl (11.9% up on year) as 9-month net profit for product shipped under Russia's Accounting Standards ...more info



• “Only 7% of Interbrew’s sales take place in Belgium,” the Chairman of Interbrew, Pierre Jean Everaert, said and explained the need to have foreigners on its board ...more info



• The Swiss brewer, Eichhof Holding, has posted recently net profit for the full year of CHF8.1 million, a 76.1% increase versus the CHF4.6 million a year ago ...more info



• The German beer maker, Holsten-Brauerei AG, is in talks with companies competitors, which may see the break up of the company ...more info

2. Brewery News

The European Court of Justice has given Austria the right to stop the American brewer Anheuser Busch from marketing its flagship beer in Austria under the name 'American Bud', Europolitix agency reported on November 18. The case is yet another chapter in the protracted dispute between the Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar and AB both of whom claim to be the rightful owners of the name ‘Budweiser’. The Czech firm claims that its hometown village of Ceske Budejovice – called Budweis in German –gives it the rights to the Budweiser brand name. Conversely, AB - set up by German immigrants from Budweis to the US in the mid-nineteenth century - has been largely responsible for the global recognition the name Budweiser now has. The crux of the present case rests on a 1976 bilateral deal between Austria and its neighbour the then Czechoslovak Socialist Republic which gave BB exclusive rights to the name ‘Bud’. The Austrian courts must now decide whether this deal was still valid when Austria joined the EU after the fracturing of Czechoslovakia in 1993 in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet bloc. If the authorities consider the bilateral agreement untouched by political changes then it predates Austria’s accession to the EU in 1995 and is therefore legally binding despite contradicting EU rules on the free movement of goods. Furthermore, if Vienna decides that the name ‘Bud’ in the minds of Austrian drinkers designates a region or a place in the Czech Republic, then the name will come under a protection scheme for industrial and commercial products which must then be extended to Austrian territory as well...more info

The Danish brewing force, Carlsberg A/S, announced on November 18 that the Board of Directors of Carlsberg Sweden has decided to transfer the production of beer and soft drinks from the brewery in Stockholm to Falkenberg and to a lesser extent to Copenhagen. The transfer of the production will take place gradually, and the process is to be completed during October 2004. It is expected that this decision will improve Carlsberg Sweden's operating profit with approx. 70 million SEK annually with full effect from 2005. Consequently, approx. 300 jobs will be shed in Stockholm, however, approx. 60 new jobs will be created in Falkenberg. One-time costs related to the restructuring cannot yet be specified. The reason for the decision is the past years' weak development in Carlsberg Sweden's sales and earnings in a market characterized by a very high level of excise duties on beer, substantial parallel import and increasing consumption of discount beer. As to rationalisation of administration in Sweden, a decision is expected to be made in December 2003.

SINGAPORE: Asia-Pacific Breweries Ltd, which produces "Tiger Beer", posted on November 14 good results in both sales and net profit for 2003 year ended on September 30, 2003. Net profit for the year rose by 10.9% to S$94.14m (US$54.26m) from S$84.9m year-on-year. Sales increased by 15.1% to S$1.26 billion. The brewer witnessed strong performances in New Zealand, Vietnam, and improvements in Thailand and Papua New Guinea. In September, Asia-Pacific was hit for undisclosed claims from banks in Germany, Sweden and Japan after one of the company’s executives was charged with defrauding them of up to US$69m. The brewery has said it will contest the charges. The case is expected to open in Singapore’s High Court soon. Asia-Pacific, makers of Tiger beer, is joint-owned by Dutch brewery Heineken NV (42.5%) and Fraser & Neave Ltd (37.9%). It is also Singapore’s oldest brewery.

Czech breweries produced around 14.03 million hectolitres of beer in the first nine months of 2003, a rise year-on-year of 2.4%, Czech Association of Breweries and Malt Houses reported. Jan Vesely, chairman of the Czech Association of Breweries and Malt Houses, said that he expected full-year output to be about 2% higher than last year, with exports exceeding 2m hectolitres against 1.075m hectolitres in 2002. At the end of June, output was level with 2002, but thanks to the good weather, sales picked up in Q3. A realistic comparison between this year and last year, however, is difficult due to the devastating floods around Europe in August last year. The medium- and long-term future for the Czech brewing industry looks positive once the Czech Republic accedes to the European Union in May. Co-entrants Poland and Hungary will then have to lift quotas on Czech beer imports, according to Vesely.

3. Malt News

Russian company OAO Russky Solod have started building a malting plant in Orlovsk Region, Russia, according to the Russian media reports from November 18. OAO Russky Solod is a subsidiary of Avangard Bank. The total cost of the project is 1 billion RUB (about US$ 33.6 million). The plant is to be launched by January 2005. The production capacity is to be about 100 thousand tonnes of malt per year. The plant built in Orlovsk Region is the third malting plant build by the Avangard Bank on the territory of Russia. The total production capacities of plants will come to 300 thousand tonnes per year that will cover about 30% of the Russian brewers needs in malt. The total cost of the project regarding building malting plants in Russia is estimated at US$ 100 million. There was invested about US$ 55 million by the middle of November 2003.

4. Barley News

Main barley exporters