In its continual pursuit for growth in China, Asia Pacific Breweries Limited’s (APB) joint venture company, Heineken–APB (China) Pte Ltd (HAPBC), through its wholly owned subsidiary, Guangzhou Asia Pacific Brewery Co. Ltd (GAPB) will build a greenfield brewery in the Huangpu District of Guangzhou City, Guangdong, according to company’s press release, May 15.

The brewery investment is estimated to be approximately RMB$600 million (or approximately S$120 million). This will be financed through a combination of external borrowings and internal funding by HAPBC’s shareholders in proportion to their respective shareholdings. HAPBC is equally-owned by APB and Asia Pacific Investment Pte Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture of Fraser & Neave and Heineken.

On the Group’s latest investment in China, Mr Koh Poh Tiong, Chief Executive Officer, APB said, “The greenfield brewery investment in Guangzhou is aligned with our growth strategy for China. It is designed to fulfil two key objectives – to accelerate our advancement in South China; and to enable us to focus on further expanding the Hainan market. In recent years, our beer brands namely Tiger, Heineken and Anchor have made significant inroads into South China. To propel HAPBC’s organic growth going forward, we are in need of additional capacity which the ...More Info

SABMiller plc, one of the world’s leading brewers with operations and distribution agreements in over 60 countries across six continents, reported its preliminary (unaudited) results for the twelve months to 31 March 2008, in a press release, May 15.

Operational Highlights

• Group lager volumes up 11% to 239 million hectolitres (hl), organic growth of 7% • EBITA up 15%, and 9% on an organic constant currency basis despite rising input costs • Mix benefits and strong pricing improve Miller EBITA in the US • Volume, price and productivity gains drive excellent earnings growth in Europe - EBITA up 30% • Latin America lager volume growth of 5% despite exceptional prior year - EBITA up 17% • Africa organic volumes of lager up 6% - substantial investment programme to capture growth opportunities • CR Snow volume growth continues ahead of the China market - Snow brand up 63% • South Africa lager volumes level - a satisfactory result given loss of a premium brand

"This strong outturn to the year is particularly pleasing given the scale of the challenge we faced at its outset, with exceptional prior year comparatives, rising input costs and an increasingly competitive environment in ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch Inc. has signed a letter of intent to terminate its U.S. importing rights to the Grolsch beer brands, according to company’s press release, May 14. Miller Brewing Company will become the importer of the Grolsch brands. The deal will provide enhanced protections for Anheuser-Busch equity wholesalers. Anheuser-Busch expects the deal to close by August 1, 2008.

Grolsch has been imported by Anheuser-Busch since April 2006 under an agreement with brand owner Royal Grolsch NV. In February 2008, SABMiller plc, parent company of Miller Brewing, completed its acquisition of Royal Grolsch NV and the Grolsch brands.

The financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

“The time is right to end our importation of these brands,” said David A. Peacock, vice president, marketing, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “It is important that our wholesalers who transition these brands are able to protect their investments. This agreement includes provisions for our distributors that will compensate them appropriately.”

“Since the time we began importing Grolsch, Anheuser-Busch has expanded its portfolio to include a full range of other high-end imports such as Stella Artois, Beck’s and Bass Pale Ale, as well as craft-style beers and non-alcohol beverages,” continued Peacock. “Together with our best-selling American brands, including Budweiser, Bud Light ...More Info

Brewery Starobrno had a Kc138m profit last year, Kc31m more than in 2006 and the best result ever, and its beer production grew by 67,000 hectolitres to 981,000 hectolitres, according to the company's financial statement approved at Wednesday's general meeting, CTK reported May 14.

The company also sold 132,000 hectolitres of other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Turnover from the sale of beverages, including excise duty, reached Kc1.595bn, Kc151m more than in 2006.

Kralovsky pivovar Krusovice, Starobrno's majority shareholder, is trying to acquire all remaining shares from small stockholders. It now holds 97 percent in the company.

Kralovsky has offered Kc1.381 per share worth a nominal Kc500.

The price was approved at the company's extraordinary general meeting Wednesday, the brewery's spokeswoman Katerina Eliasova told CTK.

Krusovice is a member of Dutch group Heineken.

A contract was signed between Baltika Breweries and Brasseries Internationales Holding (Eastern) Ltd (BIH Eastern) for the purchase of Baku-Castel brewery in Azerbaijan, Carlsberg revealed in a press release, May 15.

The deal will come into force after receiving approval from the anti-monopoly authorities of Azerbaijan.

Baltika has been shipping its products to Azerbaijan since the year 2000 and today it has a 3.5% share of the local beer market. It is the leader in the imported beer segment. The whole range of Baltika and Nevskoye brands is represented in the republic, as well as the licensed brands Carlsberg and Kronenbourg 1664.

The annual rate of growth of the beer market in Azerbaijan in the coming 3 years is 12- 14%.

By having its own production in the Trans-Caucasus region, Baltika will be able to lower its logistics costs and consequently to develop new export routes.

Carlsberg is one of the leading brewery groups in the world, with a large portfolio of beer and soft drinks brands. Its flagship brand – Carlsberg – is one of the fastest-growing and best-known beer brands in the world. More than 40,000 people work for Carlsberg, and its products are sold in more than 150 markets. In 2007 Carlsberg sold ...More Info

San Miguel Brewery, San Miguel Corp's cash cow which was spun off and listed earlier this week, recorded a 37 percent rise in net profit to 2.5 billion pesos on net sales up 13 percent in first quarter of the year, according to Reuters, May 15.

The unit accounts for about 40 percent of the parent company's operating profit.

San Miguel said last year it would sell its core food and beverage businesses and venture into heavy industry, such as mining, power and infrastructure, to boost growth in its saturated home market where nine out of 10 beers sold are San Miguel brands.

Sell-offs included a 65 percent stake in the local Coca Cola bottler to partner The Coca Cola Co (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research). In Australia, Lion Nathan Ltd (LNN.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) paid $301 million for brewer James Boag, and Japan's Kirin Holdings (2503.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which owns a fifth of San Miguel, bought dairy and juice producer National Foods for $1 billion.

The deal with Lion Nathan, where San Miguel's partner Kirin owns about 46 percent, was completed in early January.

Company President Ramon Ang said earlier this week the group would focus on the home market after global downturns soured ...More Info

An explosion took place May 13 at Ghlin malt house, according to Belgian media, May 13. A part of the roof and 2 silos were destroyed. Fortunately, there were no victims.

The cause of deflagration is believed to be the accumulation of dust from barley and malt in one of the plant’s silo.

Ghlin malt house has a production capacity of 60.000 tonnes per year and it has 18 employees.

The operators on the malting barley market are reassured about the quality of the new crop, that’s why there have been fewer transactions on the market, La Depeche published May 14. The quotations are only a bit higher than last week. There are no more quotations for the old crop.

The interest for feed barley increased this week with some transactions in the port and several regions. Quotation were slightly higher.

IGC forecasts a slightly larger crop of 3.7 Mill. tons, 100.000 tons more than last year, the analysts have recently reported.

Barley imports are estimated at 1.8 Mill. tons vs. 1,4 during the present crop year, but Chinese industries find the higher figure doubtful.

The acreage of malting barley is expected to increase further from 550 to 700,000 ha in 2008/09, according to analysts, May 2.

Argentina is seen as a hopefully larger supplier of malting barley and malt in the world, at a time when production in Europe and North America has been declining.

Following the successful registration of the European protected designation of origin „ZATECKY CHMEL“ (Saaz hops) in May 2007 hops and hop products from the crop 2007 could for the first time carry the label with logos of ZATECKY CHMEL and European protected designation of origin, Hop Growers Union of Czech Republic has recently reported.

The European protected designation of origin „ZATECKY CHMEL“ (Saaz hops) was used for the first time in the processing season 2007/2008 on the hop products from Zatec

Many merchant companies used the opportunity in the last hop processing season and so for the first time in history the hop products from the Saaz variety grown in the Saaz hop growing region were delivered to the breweries with a unique label. In 2007 it was possible to place this label on hops grown in the Czech Republic in 138 villages with an acreage of 3642 ha. The majority of these hops were delivered to Japan.

The label with the logos of protected designation of origin was first introduced to the public during the Zatec hop festival – on the 1st Septemer 2007 by the minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic Mr. Petr Gandalovic, the vice prime minister for European ...More Info

Patricia L. Pratt, James H. Bryce and Graham G. Stewart

Abstract
J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 55–60, 2007 The yeast vacuole has been shown to exhibit morphological responses to environmental conditions when exposed to worts of different gravity during fermentation. Marked effects of high gravity wort (20° Plato) on yeast morphology compared to more conventional wort gravity (12° Plato) were observed. High gravity worts caused vacuolar enlargement compared to conventional gravity wort. These results suggested that yeast cells experienced severe alterations with the vacuolar tonoplast when exposed to high osmotic pressure and elevated levels of ethanol. Key words: High gravity wort, ethanol, morphology, osmotic pressure, vacuole, yeast stress. ... Load full article, 6 pages, 1972 Kb, PDF file