Lion Nathan, Australia’s second-largest brewer, announced on July, 16 its trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2009.

The company said it is on track to deliver A$305-A$315 mln net profit after tax (pre-significant items, i. e. excluding costs associated with the Kirin proposal and scheme process) in FY2009. This is consistent with previous profit guidance, Lion Nathan said.

Group sales volumes grew by 3% for the nine months to June 2009. Over the same period, net sales revenue grew around 6%, driven by significant growth in the Australian business which offset declines in wine.

On a year to date basis Lion Nathan Australia has grown beer volumes by 5%. Key brands highlights include the continued growth of XXXX Gold and the Tooheys trademark, and the strong growth of Hahn Super Dry and Boag’s Draught. Building on the success of recent innovations, Hahn Super Dry 3.5 was launched during the quarter with encouraging results, the company said.

In New Zealand some softening of volumes was experienced in the third quarter consistent with market trends, however both mix and value had a positive impact on revenue. The Steinlager trademark has benefited from new packaging and promotional support for Steinlager Classic as well as ...More Info

Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes announced on July, 17 it plans to buy out all shares that it does not already own in Efes Breweries International, its Netherlands-based subsidiary.

Anadolu Efes currently holds approximately 70.22% (representing 148,457,429 shares) of Efes Breweries International N.V. (“EBI”) carrying out the company’s international beer operations. Anadolu Efes said it intends to make a cash offer for the entire issued share capital of EBI not already owned by Anadolu Efes.

The aforementioned shares are held in the form of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), listed on the London Stock Exchange, held only by Qualified Institutional Buyers and represent approximately 29.78% of the entire issued share capital of EBI (the “Offer”). The Offer values EBI at US$11.10 in cash for each GDR (representing five EBI ordinary shares).

The Offer will start following the posting of the Offer Document and will stay open until as required by the relevant legislation. The start and closing dates of the Offer will be announced separately, the company said.

According to Anadolu Efes, the decision to make an offer has been taken considering the combination of the low liquidity of EBI GDRs, which started trading on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, the current economic and ...More Info

According to RosStat data, Russia’s beer output declined by 6.8% in the first half of this year as compared to the same period in 2008, Gazeta.ru reported on July, 15.

Total Russian beer production in January – June 2009 is estimated at 54.3 mln hl. In June alone beer production decreased by 4.4% as compared to June 2008 but grew by 5.9% versus May 2009.

Ukraine’s beer production dropped by 6.3% over the first six months of this year, Biz.liga.net communicated on July, 16.

According to official statistics, the nation’s H1 beer output amounted to 15.5 mln hl.

In June, beer production fell by 7.6% as compared to May 2009 (to 3.44 mln hl) and increased by 3.6% as compared to June 2008.

V.V. Food & Beverage has announced that it will sell its Jiangshu Shuanggou Brewery Co., Ltd., to the local authorities of Suqian, Jiangsu province, Alcnet.ru communicated on July, 17.

The city’s government aims at further integration of the local beer production. The brewery is a good profit earner, analysts comment.

Last year, Jiangshu Shuanggou Brewery reported sales value of 1.5 bln yuan, whereas the company’s net profit amounted to 1.1 bln yuan. The brewery is expected to increase its net profit to 2 bln yuan in 2009.

Ursus Breweries, one of Romania’s major brewers, has invested EUR50 mln in its Timisoara beer plant, the Wall-Street informed on July, 17.

As a result of the project launched in 2007, the brewery’s production capacity was tripled, Ursus said.

“We decided to invest in this plant because we believe in the Timisoara brand. It has started as a local beer and quickly grew into a national brand with a more than 15% share of the Romanian beer market,” Stephan Maria Weber, president of Ursus Breweries, said.

At present, the brewing capacity of the Timisoara plant exceeds 2 mln hl, which makes it Ursus’ second-largest plant after that in Buzau. These two breweries account for two thirds of the company’s total beer output.

Ursus Breweries is a subsidiary of the world’s No. 2 brewer SABMiller plc.

Paul H. Chlup, Dominic Bernard and Graham G. Stewart

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(1), 45–61, 2008
Hydrodynamic stresses imposed on brewing cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during beer processing can have a detrimental impact on beer quality. The use of centrifuges has become an efficient way to increase brewery throughput as they decrease clarification times and improve fermenter and tank conditioning efficiency. The effect of a disc stack centrifuge on yeast and beer physical stability has been investigated. In this study, a commercial ale yeast strain has been subjected to different operating conditions during centrifugation. Cell viability and intracellular pH decreased due to processing conditions encountered during yeast cropping with a centrifuge. A relationship has been established that yeast cell wall mannan, an unfilterable haze constituent, as a function of G-force and centrifugation cycles, is released from the cell wall while concurrently, particle sizes between 0.5-2.8 µm and beer haze increased. Furthermore, yeast intracellular glycogen and trehalose levels were depleted as a result of centrifugation.
Key words: beer haze, centrifuge, flow cytometry, g-force, glycogen, intracellular pH, stress, trehalose, yeast. Load full article, 17 pages, 1.29 MB , PDF file