The Dutch beer giant, Heineken N.V., announced December 28th the acquisition of the Cypriot holding company of the Syabar Brewing Company, in Bobruysk, Mogilyov region, Belarus. Under the terms of the transaction, Heineken will acquire Syabar's Cypriot parent company from a consortium led by Detroit Investments Limited (Cyprus) and from the International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank.

Heineken did not disclose financial details, but Theodoor Gilissen analyst Jan Meijer said in a note he expected Heineken to pay between 70 million euros and 130 million euros (51.5 million-95.6 million pounds).

The Dutch brewery, which wants to buy Britain's biggest brewer Scottish & Newcastle together with Carlsberg said: “The transaction will be funded from existing cash resources and will be earnings enhancing in 2008 and value enhancing in 2012”.

Shares in Heineken, which sells about 132 million hectolitres of beer globally, were up 0.3 percent at 44.53 euros by 12:10 p.m. British time today, December 28th, in line with a 0.3 percent rise of the DJ Stoxx European Food and Drinks index, according to Reuters.

The acquisition of Syabar comes after its planned takeovers of Serbia's brewer Rodic Brewery announced earlier this month, and of Czech Krusovice Brewery announced ...More Info

Southeast Asia's largest food and drinks group, San Miguel Corp., said it had signed a definitive agreement to sell its Tasmanian brewer J. Boag & Son Pty. Ltd. to Australian alcoholic beverage company Lion Nathan Ltd. for A$325 million ($286 million), Philippine Daily Inquirer posted on January 3rd.

San Miguel's sale of Boag to Australia's second-largest brewer, comes as it aims to push into heavy industry, such as power, mining, infrastructure and real estate, to drive growth after dominating the home market for beer, liquor, dairy products, processed food and poultry for decades.

J. Boag makes Australia’s second-largest selling premium beer under the flagship brand James Boag’s Premium Lager. Its annual sales revenue grew to A$92 million in 2006 from A$61 million in 1999 before San Miguel’s acquisition.

San Miguel’s sale of J. Boag followed its sale of Australian dairy and juice manufacturer National Foods Ltd. to Japanese conglomerate Kirin Holdings Co. for A$2.8 billion (P101.44 billion).

Kirin owns 19.9 percent of San Miguel and 46 percent of Lion Nathan.

San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said proceeds of the J. Boag sale could be used for San Miguel’s plans to enter new businesses.

San Miguel has said it plans to venture into ...More Info

Shipments of beer and quasi-beer beverages are expected to have renewed their record low again in 2007, due to weak demand reflecting a fall in the nation's population and stricter punishments for drunk driving, industry officials say, according to Jiji Press Dec 28, 2007.

In addition, the excessive number of new brand releases, which totaled 23 this year, seems to have backfired, the officials said.

This year's combined shipments of beer, "happoshu" low-malt quasi-beer products and so-called third-segment drinks with little or no malt content are expected to have been nearly one pct lower than the record low of 497.5 million cases set last year. Each case contains the equivalent of 20 633-milliliter bottles.

Beer and happoshu shipments this year are seen falling below the previous year's levels. The third segment will be the only sector to register a positive performance.

Beer companies are likely to see shipment targets not met for most newly released products.

At Kirin Brewery Co., shipments of its new "The Gold" beer are seen around six million cases, against the company's initially projected eight million cases.

Shipments of Sapporo Breweries Ltd.'s "Umai Nama" third-segment product were about 70 pct less than projected. "Consumers were confused by too many new brands," said ...More Info

Molson Coors Brewing Co. and the largest Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo - owner of the Corona brand - have created a joint venture to import and sell Modelo's beer in Canada, The Canadian Press posted on January 3rd.

The 50-50 venture will be called Modelo Molson Imports L.P. and based in Toronto. Robert Armstrong, previously CEO for Modelo's office in Canada, will lead the new venture. Financial details about the establishment of Modelo Molson Imports LP were not disclosed Wednesday in a release.

As of 1 January 2008, the companies, through the 50/50 joint venture Modelo Molson Imports, will ship, distribute and market the Mexican firm's products throughout the country in a bid to boost respective sales.

Modelo, which owns the Corona brand, is Mexico's No. 1 brewer, controlling 63 percent of the Mexican market. It operates seven breweries there and distributes 13 brands, including Corona Extra, Modelo Especial, Victoria, Pacifico and Negra Modelo.

Molson's Canadian division, based in Montreal, already imports, distributes and markets Modelo brands in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

The 50/50 joint venture will have its headquarters in Toronto and be led by Robert Armstrong, previously CEO for Modelo's office in Canada, called Canacermex.

Grupo Modelo, founded in 1925, ...More Info

Vietnam's largest brewer, state-owned, Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), plans to raise at least $557 million from selling 20 percent of its shares in an initial public offering late this month that would value the company at about $2.7bn, the stock exchange said, according to Reuters January 2.

The offering by Sabeco, which has 30 per cent of Vietnam's fast-growing beer market, will take place this month as the Communist-ruled country steps up the pace of its stalled partial privatisation process for large state-owned companies.

The IPO was delayed from August 2007 as the partial privatisation of the Ho Chi Minh City-based brewer received approval only on Dec. 28 and the government said it would retain 79.61 percent of the firm. The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI said in a separate statement seen on Wednesday Sabeco would auction 128,257,000 shares, or 20 percent, on Jan. 28 at a starting price of 70,000 dong ($4.34) each. It did not say what Sabeco would use the proceeds for.

Based on the starting price, Sabeco, which has a 30 percent share of a domestic beer market it says will grow 10 percent a year over the next decade, would be valued at $2.78 billion.

In ...More Info

The number of pints served in Britain's pubs and bars in the run-up to the busy festive period declined by almost 10% as chilly smokers, no longer allowed a cigarette inside a pub, cut short their drinking time or stayed at home, The Guardian posted on .

In the first winter since the UK-wide ban on smoking in public places was imposed in July, pub beer consumption for November fell 9.7% against the same period in 2006, according to industry figures.

Pub bosses expected the ban to hit hardest in winter but the November decline is by far the steepest since the restrictions were extended from Scotland into Wales and England last year. UK beer sales in August, the second month of the nationwide ban, were down just 2.5%.

The November figures followed falls of 8.2% and 7.7% for September and October respectively and appeared to hit every type of beer. "All categories fell - there was nowhere to hide," said Mark Brumby, an analyst at Blue Oar Securities. "Premium ale was down 6.9%, standard ale 9.6%, standard lager 10.4%, premium lager 8.3% and stout 10.6%."

He suggested that smaller, tenanted pubs and free houses were likely to be among the most exposed to ...More Info

A new beer factory called Nocal II, which has been under construction for the last four months in Bom Jesus, 59 kilometers from Luanda, is due to begin production in June of this year, Angolan news agency Angop reported January 2nd.

Angop cited the head of the Nocal beer company’s sales department, Manuel Freitas, saying that US$200 million was being invested by the company in partnership with Brasseries Internationales Holding (BIH).

The new factory, with modern facilities, will employ 300 Angolans and produce around 120,000 hectorliters of beer per month.

According to Freitas the factory will only supply the national market, as demand is currently higher than supply in Angola.

Freitas said that the choice of location for the factory, which is located next to the Kwanza river, would make it easier for water consumption, the factory’s main raw material.

He said that the other products needed, such as malt, rice and maize, would be imported, whilst sugar will be bought locally.

Canadian grain handlers said on Thursday, January 3rd 2008, they will not participate in the Canadian Wheat Board's new barley pricing program and asked the federal government to end the agency's marketing monopoly on the crop, according to Reuters.

The CWB's proposed cash pricing program for malting barley would not give farmers accurate price signals and would be cumbersome, said a spokesman for the Western Grain Elevator Association, which represents Canada's seven largest grain handlers.

"It is a mess, because the wheat board is trying to create some half-way system that is the worst-case scenario," said Wade Sobkowich.

The confusion over the new program comes as Prairie farmers begin to decide what to grow in spring.

It is the first time the grain companies have publicly called for Ottawa to dismantle the CWB's "single desk" for sales of barley, which covers barley grown in Western Canada and sold to maltsters and export markets.

Barley sales accounted for about 11 percent of the C$3.5 billion ($3.5 billion) in revenue for the farmer-controlled CWB for the year ended July 31, 2006. Most of its revenue comes from wheat sales.

The government had tried to end the barley monopoly by regulation as of August 1, 2007, but a Federal ...More Info

IVAN BOHAČENKO(1), JOSEF CHMELÍK(2) and VRATISLAV PSOTA(3) (1)Food Research Institute Prague, Prague, Czech Republic; (2)Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic; (3)Research Institute of Brewing and Malting, Brno, Czech Republic

Abstract
BOHAČENKO I., CHMELÍK J., PSOTA V. (2006): Determination of the contents of A- and B-starches in barley using Low Angle Laser Light Scattering. Czech J. Food Sci., 24: 11–18. A method was proposed for the determination of the contents of A- and B-starches in barley and for the use in plant breeding stations and brewing/malting laboratories. A combination was used of classical methods (incl. crushing of barley kernels by a roll crusher, steeping in 0.02M HCl, repeated rubbing and filtering through the sieve of 0.08 mm), and novel pieces of know-how (treatment with β-glucanase and cellulase, alkalisation at pH = 10.0 and centrifugation of crude starch suspension through the layer of CsCl). In this way, barley starch of high purity was obtained at a very low loss, using Low Angle Laser Light Scattering for the determination of the size distribution of starch granules. The boundary of the particle size between the peaks of A-starch and B-starch (7 μm) was evaluated from the distribution curves, while the contents of A- and B-starches were calculated from the cumulative curves. As a whole, the method was internally validated and for its repeatability and uncertainty of measurement the stimates of standard deviation s = 1.56 and confidence interval L1,2 = x ± 1.9% were established, respectively. Taking into account the generally well known difficulties associated with the extraction of substances from biological materials, in this case the separation of starch from barley kernels, we believe that the proposed method will bring satisfactory results in practice. Keywords: barley; A-starch; B-starch; starch granules; Low Angle Laser Light Scattering
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