China Resources Enterprise, the state-controlled brewer of the popular Snow brand beer, has seen its profit more than halve in 2008, due to lower consumer spending and strong competition, Dow Jones reported on March, 31.

The company said net profit fell to HK$2.32 bln (US$299 mln), from HK$4.96 bln a year ago, with the latter being helped by a HK$2.4 bln gain from the sale of a fuel distribution unit. Sales rose 4% year-on-year to HK$64.6 bln.

The company's beer sales volume was up 4.7% year-on-year to 7.26 million kiloliters, helping total beer sales jump up 30% to HK$16bn, and profit rise 25% to HK$298m. The company said it also grew market share, and now commands an 18% share of the Chinese beer market. The year also saw Snow Beer become the largest-selling beer brand in the world (in November 2008).

The company said it will cut back on capital expenditure during the year, noting that “the possibility of deflation and prolonged economic slowdown globally still exists”.

Chinese beer Snow leapt ahead of Bud Light to become the world's biggest selling beer, Reuters cited on March, 31 provisional data from researcher Plato Logic.

Snow, which is brewed by SABMiller and its Chinese partner China Resources Enterprises Ltd, saw its 2008 sales volumes jump 19.1 percent to 61 million hectolitres putting it well ahead of Bud Light and sister brew Budweiser.

Belgium-based InBev took over Bud Light and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion in November 2008 to create the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Plato lists the top six beer brands as the Snow range of beers followed by the Bud Light range, including Dry and Ice, at 55.6 million hectolitres, Budweiser at 43.4 million followed by AB-InBev's Brazilian beer Skol, Modelo's Mexican beer Corona and the Heineken brand.

The Snow brand has grown rapidly as China overtook the United States earlier this decade to become the biggest beer market in the world in terms of volume and is now over 50 percent larger. In 2007, Plato put Snow second to Bud Light and ahead of Budweiser.

The Snow range of brands accounts for 84 percent of sales at the China Resources-SABMiller joint venture in 2008, the Chinese group reported in ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is starting the second round of bids for its wholly owned South Korean brewer, Oriental Brewery Co., late next week, Dow Jones cited people familiar with the situation on April, 1.

The second round will end in the third week of the month, sources said.

The Belgium-based world’s largest beer maker by sales invited bids of US$2 billion-US$3 billion in February for Oriental Brewery, people familiar with the matter said earlier.

Private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Affinity Equity Partners are among the bidders that qualified for the second round, the people familiar with the matter said on April, 1.

South Korea's Lotte Group was considered the most likely winner before the auction, but its initial bid failed to meet the required purchase price. It has since revised its offer, one person said.

According to unnamed sources, the retail giant is ready to return to the fray and raise its initial offer for Oriental Brewery. Beer would complete Lotte's product line-up, which includes popular local liquor soju and whisky. OB would give the buyer a 40 percent share of a major beer market. No.1 brewer Hite has 60 percent of the market share.

The sources, who did not want to be ...More Info

State-owned Czech brewery Budejovicky Budvar NP - which has been fighting a long legal battle over the Budweiser brand - said it boosted its exports to the United States by 7 percent in 2008 due to a distribution deal with its U.S. archrival Anheuser-Busch, the Associated Press reported on March, 31.

Budvar exported a total of 11,791 hectolitres of beer to the United States in 2008, compared with some 11,000 hectolitres the previous year, the brewer said.

"We're delighted by the results," Budvar spokesman Petr Samec said. "It's a decent growth," he said.

"The distribution is functioning very well."

Two years ago, Anheuser-Busch – now part of Belgium-based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev - agreed to distribute Budvar's Czechvar lager in the United States, giving the Czech company access to its unrivalled network of 600 independent wholesalers.

Although Budvar considers itself the maker of the original Budweiser, it has since 2001 exported its lager to the U.S. under the name Czechvar due to trademark issues.

Budvar fought for years with brewer Anheuser-Busch in a number of countries over use of the famous Budweiser brand, to which both companies claim a historical right. Anheuser-Busch was taken over by Belgian brewer InBev last year to form Anheuser-Busch InBev, the ...More Info

Tsingtao Brewery plans to invest 2 billion baht in a brewery in Thailand - its first plant outside China, The Bangkok Post reported on March, 28.

The Chinese brewer aims thus to take advantage of low raw material taxes under the free trade agreement between Thailand and Australia.

Theparak Leungsuwan, managing director of Cosnam Shipping, said his company and a few local partners would enter a joint venture with Tsingtao Brewery, which would hold a 40% stake, in establishing a brewery with initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year. The capacity will be boosted to 200,000 tonnes if the enterprise gets a good response from the market, he added.

Tsingtao, a premium beer producer, wants to expand its presence abroad but has no plants outside the mainland.

''Tsingtao had considered setting up its brewery in Malaysia or Thailand and chose us because we can be its logistics hub to export to other destinations,'' Theparak Leungsuwan said, adding that the FTA with Australia provides tax benefits on imported malt, a key raw material for beer.

The 2-billion-baht investment would be made in a province near Bangkok with access to shipping ports. The plant will hire 600 workers and export 80% of its production to Australia and ...More Info

Heineken Romania, one of the nation’s biggest brewers, announced an increase in turnover by up to 20% in 2008 compared to the results of the previous year, Curierul National reported on March, 31.

The brewer’s net value reached 829 mln lei, a company release said.

For 2009, Heineken said it will continue to invest in its new brewery and in the Neumarkt brand, as well as in the other factories and brands.

The process of legal integration of the company Bere Mureş within Heineken Romania will be finalised in early April 2009. This action started one year ago, when Heineken NV acquired the Romanian Bere Mures brewery, a transaction that consolidated the market position of the company.

The most important product of the portfolio, the Heineken brand, had a 26% growth in 2008.

According to market studies conducted by AC Nielsen in 2008, the Romanian beer industry grew by around 5%. The main segment that developed is the super premium international, mainly due to the increase in consumers' demand and expectations. In addition, the super premium segment reached a market share of 9.3%, the premium segment - 11.7%, the mainstream segment - 36.2%, the economy segment - 40.3%, and the alcohol-free beer came to 2.5%.

Heineken ...More Info

SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewing company, is focusing on Africa in a bid to tap into a market worth $3 bln, the Business Day communicated on March, 31.

The brewer will also be opening four new breweries this year as it seeks to benefit from countries economies’ growing at about 4% and 5%.

According to Nigel Fairbrass, SABMiller’s head of media relations, African countries are mainly cash economies, and have not run up exposure to credit in the same fashion as other countries had.

The brewer has operations in Nigeria, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Comoros and Mayotte.

Together with French partner Castel, SABMiller also has operations in 32 out of 53 African countries.

Fairbrass said that — in the countries in which it operated — there was an informal, backyard market worth $3 bln.

This market is four times bigger than SABMiller’s market and the company wants to tap into it, he said.

Fairbrass said the company would open breweries in Mozambique, Tanzania, Sudan and Angola. He said the company had seen that beer was only affordable to a small number of people on the continent. He said SABMiller had taken a “radical” view with ...More Info

SABMiller’s Russian unit has decided to reorganize its activity through the merger of SABMiller RUS with Transmark and Vladpivo legal entities, the parent company reported on March, 30.

“The restructuring will eliminate duplication in operating structures, improve efficiency and enhance response to the market through unified national production, logistics, Sales and Distribution templates,” SABMiller RUS said.

The resulting entity will be known as SABMiller RUS, with branches in Moscow, Ulyanovsk and Vladivostok. Vladpivo and Transmark are liquidated as legal entities according to the record in Federal State Register on 27 March 2009.

"This reorganization, - says Roy Bagattini, Managing Director SABMiller Eastern Europe, - will enable us to optimize resources and costs in order to effectively deliver our investment plans, initiatives and strategies in Russia."

Vladpivo was acquired in June 2008 by SABMiller plc; the value of the gross assets acquired was estimated $69 million US. Following the merger, Vladpivo will become a SABMiller RUS Affiliate in Vladivostok.

“Within nine months of the acquisition, the brewery in Vladivostok has undergone significant technological upgrades to improve and control quality of the product,” says Martin O'Keeffe, Technical Director SABMiller RUS. “We introduced technologies to extend product shelf-life as well as new laboratory equipment for quality tests.”

SABMiller RUS ...More Info

Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (ThaiBev), Thailand’s largest beverage company, recently announced that its sales revenue for the full year 2008 had risen by 0.1% over the same period in 2007, to reach 105.257 billion Baht.

The company said its sales revenue of beer contracted by 19.1%.

Consolidated net profit for 2008 was 10,606 million Baht, slightly down by 3.1% from last year. The Board of Director has proposed to issue a dividend of 7,533 million baht, or 73% of net profit.

Cost of sales grew 3.7% to 76,556 million Baht. Selling and administrative expenses managed downwards by 4.9% when compared to 2007, to 14,084 million Baht. Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) declined 6.9% to 20,607 million Baht due to lower sales in the beer business, ThaiBev reported.

President and CEO of ThaiBev, Mr Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi said, “I believe this result shows that ThaiBev is able to use its strengths to advantage in this economic environment. We are one of the few companies in the region that produces such a broad portfolio, from soft drinks to beer and spirits. Although beer has contracted, we are able to make use of our diversified portfolio and distribution arm to meet the needs ...More Info

The cash markets for both malting and feed classes of barley showed very little movement over the past few weeks, although the contract offerings for new crop malting barley did go up some due to the upward movement in the wheat markets, Farm & Ranch Guide reported on March, 28.

According to grain merchandiser Jeremy Burkhart, this uptick in the malting contract prices gave farmers a reason to contract acres for the 2009 crop year and, as a result, the malting contracts being offered by Sun Prairie Grain in Minot, N.D., on behalf of Rahr Malting have been filled.

“Most new crop contracts are full now,” Burkhart said. “Farmers started making up their minds as to what they were going to plant, plus we've seen wheat bounce back here in the last week or so and the malting contract prices are directly related to the wheat prices on a daily basis.”

Despite this increase in signed contracts, he said there is still a lot of indecision on the part of farmers as to what they are going to be planting once field conditions allow planting, which Burkhart figures won't be taking place until around the last part of April with good weather conditions.

And ...More Info

Australian growers who have been holding 2008-09 grain over for marketing throughout the season are now witnessing a downward price trend, The Weekly Times Now reported on March, 30.

Malting barley, which commenced harvest at levels of AU$350/mt port, has declined as domestic markets have covered their needs and demand from has China evaporated.

Current values are now at AU$235 port. On a more positive note, feed barley values have seen some improvement, with continued dry weather and some obvious shorts in the market. Most growers are targeting AU$200 ex farm, with values of AU$220 port achieved last week for warehoused tonnes.

Low numbers of cattle on feed, steady sheep numbers and reduced dairy requirements are all limiting barley demand. A seasonal late break could be an advantage for feed barley prices trending upwards, and also present more opportunities for lower grade barley stored on farm to be sold to graziers or dairies, experts said.

Bids for 2009-10 crop are currently being offered by marketers at levels around AU$210 Port for multigrade barley.

Growers are in the process of making decisions on upcoming cropping plans, with the uncertainties of weather and the global economy effecting decisions.

US growers intend to plant with barley 3.95 million acres for 2009, down 7 percent from last year, AgWeb cited a USDA report on March, 31.

If realized, this will be the third lowest barley planted acreage on record, experts point out.

According to sources, in North Dakota, the largest barley-producing State, the expected planted area is 1.55 million acres, down 6 percent from 2008. Growers in California, Minnesota, New York, Washington, and Wyoming intend to decrease their acreage by 20 percent or more.

Planted acreage is expected to decline to record low levels in California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Utah. Oregon expects to match its lowest acreage on record.

Gianluca Donadini, Giorgia Spigno, Maria Daria Fumi and Roberto Pastori

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(4), 329–342, 2008 The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the sensory characteristics of beer and food that harmonically complement each other respectively from the consumer or the sommelier point of view. With this in view, the most desirable beer and everyday Italian food combinations were explored. Eighteen beer samples, easily available in the off-premise chain in Italy, and 9 dishes of Italian cuisine, were selected. The level of match of each beer and food combination was determined by a group of 51 consumers and by seven food experts using a 9- point Likert-like scale of suitability. Agreements and disagreements between food professionals and consumers were studied and discussed. Generally speaking, most of the dishes were poor complements to the beers selected for this study, for both regular consumers and experts. In particular, seafood salad, spaghetti with tomato sauce and creamed vegetable soup were inappropriate to nearly all of the beer samples overall. However, both consumers and experts found appropriate and interesting beer and food pairing choices, despite usually indicating different ideal beer samples and different levels of match for the same food. This confirmed that certain flavours of food and beer mix together better than others and indicates that consumers may have a different perception of the level of match between beer and food from experts. For regular consumers, the suitability to food was found to positively correlate with the sensory liking of beer. Furthermore the pairing suitability was not equivalent across consumer gender and age class, although these differences had a moderate to weak effect on the level of the final match. Correlations between sensory properties of food and beer samples are reported and discussed. Key words: beer, beer flavour, food, food pairing, pairing methods, sommelier. Load full article, 14 pages, 469 Kb, PDF file