Danish brewing force, Carlsberg A/S, announced to the Copenhagen Stock Exchange on October 25 that it acquires 25 % in Lao Brewery from Chang, thereby increasing its ownership to 50 per cent. The first 25 per cent were acquired in 2002. The remaining shares are held by the government of Laos.

Lao Brewery is the only brewery in Laos and it has a market share of about 99 per cent. It is a modern brewery, upgraded in recent years through the addition of a new automatic brew house and packaging lines. The present yearly production is approximately 900,000 hl beer and the capacity is 1.2 million hl beer.

Lao Brewery produces the local brand Beerlao. On top of this it has just started brewing Carlsberg Beer which was launched recently. The population in Laos is 5.3 million. The yearly GDP growth is about 3 per cent. The beer consumption is about 20 litre per capita. As a result of the economic growth it is growing by 8-9 per cent per year. Carlsberg and Chang have agreed not to disclose the acquisition price.

Carlsberg is one of the leading brewing groups in the world, with a large portfolio of beer and soft drink brands. ...More Info

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Asahi Breweries, Japan's biggest brewer, announced an 18 percent drop in its third-quarter operating profit as sales slowed, and kept its full-year forecast for profit to be little changed.

Japanese brewers face a shrinking domestic market due to a falling birthrate and an ageing population, which has led to a decline in total beer sales, Reuters reported on October 27.

Asahi , posted a group operating profit of 32.73 billion yen ($282.4 million) in the three months to September, against 39.68 billion yen a year earlier. The figures were calculated by Reuters based on the company's nine-month results. It maintained a full-year operating profit forecast of 101.5 billion yen, which would be 0.2 percent up from 2004. Analysts on average project a profit of 99.65 billion yen, in a poll of 12 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

To resist a shrinking market, breweries have introduced so-called "third-type" beers, or beer-like drinks, since 2004 but have had limited success in increasing total sales of beer-related products.

Japan's second-largest brewer, Kirin Brewery is due to announce its nine month financial results on Nov. 11, and third-ranked Sapporo Holdings will announce on Oct. 28. The top three brewers all lowered their full-year forecasts in ...More Info

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Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. reported on October 26 that consolidated net sales increased 0.2 % in the third quarter of 2005, while diluted earnings per share (excluding a one-time litigation settlement) decreased 8.2 percent. For the nine months of 2005, net sales increased 0.9 percent and earnings per share (excluding one-time items in both 2005 and 2004) declined 6.9 percent.

“We are disappointed in our sales and earnings results, but we are encouraged by improvement in our market share performance at the consumer level,” said Patrick Stokes, president and chief executive officer of the company. “Both the company and the domestic beer industry have experienced volume declines and significant cost pressures. Anheuser-Busch has undertaken a number of initiatives in 2005 to enhance beer volume and market share growth, and in the third quarter the company’s market share increased in supermarkets, according to IRI data. Although we are confident the company will restore its sales and earnings growth momentum in the future, we now expect 2005 earnings per share excluding one-time items to be 10 to 11 percent below 2004 results.”

As previously stated, the domestic beer company is planning a price increase for early 2006. Discount reductions will likely comprise a larger ...More Info

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The global beer consumption growth of 4.8% from 2004 was significantly above the long-term average, and also the highest annual rate recorded in recent history, according to Plato Logic’s latest annual World Beer Report.

Ian Pressnell, the Plato Logic director commented: “2004 was a ‘stand-out’ year, influenced above all by the strong growth recorded for China. Our latest forecasts for 2005 indicate global growth more in-line with the long-term average.”

The World Beer Report includes as well 2015 consumption forecasts for over 200 individual markets. “We expect global beer consumption to pass 1.9 billion hl in 2015, according to our latest projections,” continued Ian Pressnell, “which is broadly equivalent to a new market the size of the USA being added every 8-10 years”.

Plato Logic Looking at 2004 in more detail, found again East Europe a key growth region, where volumes advanced by 6.9% in 2004, following 7.4% in 2003. In North America, the US beer market saw o­nly a marginal recovery, but the results from South America as a whole were strong in 2004, with recovery sustained in many markets.

the launch of the new ‘third-market’ products In Japan helped the market stabilise. Although the recent phase of strong growth in ...More Info

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The executives of Thai Beverage, have said that listing the company on the stock market is essential for the company's future growth, given growing competition in the local market, Bangkog Post announced on October 26.

Kasemsant Weerakun, the spokesman of the company said the company hoped to use funds raised from its initial public offering to finance the construction of new breweries abroad to support Chang brand's growth in the world beer market.

''While Thai Beverage is quite big locally, from an international perspective we are quite small. If we cannot list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, we will lose business opportunities,'' he said.

''Every country is expanding its international presence in response to growing competition and market liberalisation. Thai companies must do the same.''

The Thai brewer is a holding company with interests in 63 companies, 20,000 employees and 2004 profits of 10 billion baht on sales of 90 billion. In addition to market leader Chang Beer, the group, controlled by billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, also produces Mekhong rum, whiskies and other spirits. Thai Beverage IPO has been highly anticipated by the market, and stands to be the largest private company listing in SET history.

But the Securities and Exchange Commission has yet ...More Info

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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development became the a shareholder of Byelorussia’s “Olivaria Brewery ”, Nikolai Dudko, the Olivaria’s director told BelTA on October 25.

European Bank of Reconstruction and Development bought and additional issue of shares and now the EBRD owns 30 per cent of the shares. Before all shares of the company were owned by natural persons.

The additional issue of the company’s shares was registered last week. The issue was in the amount of 25,7 thousand common registered shares at the nominal value of Br349 thousand at the sum of Br8,97 billion. Thus the authorized fund was increased from Br20,9 billion to Br29,9 billion.

Nikolai Dudko said that the proceeds from the sale of shares will be used for the brewery’s modernization.

The company started beer production in 1864. In 1994 the company was reorganized into JSC “Olivaria Brewery”. At present the company manufactures 8 beers. The company’s capacity makes 4 million kiloliters of beer per year. In 2005 “Olivaria” is set to produce 2,7 million kiloliters of beer. In January-September 2005 the company’s output reached 1,984 million kiloliters.

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In spite of higher prices for both feed and malting barley, the actual prices received by farmers remained flat since increased freight costs are absorbing most the of bump in prices, according to the report from Farm and Ranch.

“Some are seeing the malting barley inching up a little bit, while feed barley isn't doing really much,” said Randy Brag of Valley Grain in Casselton. “The bids to the elevators are inching up, but the cost to get cars, and the cost of freight has increased, so when you get back to the farmer, the farmer is taking it in the shorts again. The rise in price isn't going to the farmer because everyone's price has gone up.”

According to Brag’s statement, in regards to feed barley, the big issue is whether you can get cars. Valley Grain has some feed barley customers on the West Coast, and at this time they are running two weeks behind in getting barley delivered to them because of the rail car situation.

The upward tick in the prices of malting barley is mainly a regional situation, according to Brag. Each of the four maltsters that contract malting barley directly from the farmers has ...More Info

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The Western Australia’s Department of Agriculture announced on October 25 that it prepares to commercialise a new malting barley variety, which was recently given provisional malting classification by the Western Malting Barley Council.

Senior plant breeder Chengdao Li said WABAR2175 would produce quality malt suitable for both international markets and domestic maltsters, but the real winners with the release of the new variety would be barley growers.

Dr Li said “WABAR2175 is suited to most of Western Australia’s grain growing regions and offers growers a number of agronomic advantages over other malting barley varieties”

“For example our trial data indicates that WABAR2175 yields higher than both Gairdner and Stirling barley. The new variety also has a plumper grain shape and stands a better chance of being received for malting than Baudin and Gairdner.”

Dr Li said stated another bonus for growers was that WABAR2175 also had improved levels of resistance to scald, net type net blotch and barley leaf rust compared to Stirling, Hamelin and Baudin. The Department has begun the process of commercialisation for WABAR2175 and will appoint a seed distribution licensee in 2006. Seed of WABAR2175 will be available to growers for the 2007 season.

The ...More Info

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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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