London-based world’s second-largest brewer SABMiller plc said on November, 19 its total revenue declined by 6% to $13.36 bln in the six months to 30 September 2009.

Lager volumes were down 1% on an organic basis, but the brewer continued to gain share across many of its key markets.

Despite the slight decline in volumes, EBITA performance was strong, growing 11% on an organic, constant currency basis to $2.19 bln with the group’s EBITA margin improving 110 basis points (bps) to 16.8%. The benefits of falling commodity prices are not yet fully reflected in the costs, due to the long term nature of the company’s raw material supply contracts and the relative strength of the US dollar in which many of these contracts are priced. Greater efficiencies in the marketing spend, combined with cost reductions and restructuring in certain markets, continued to benefit SABMiller’s cost base. On a reported basis, EBITA declined 2% reflecting significantly weaker operating currencies against the US dollar compared to the same period in the prior year. Although reported EBITA was lower, adjusted earnings grew 10% due to lower finance charges and reduced profit attributable to minority interests following the purchase of the 28.1% minority interest in the ...More Info

China’s largest brewer, China Resources Enterprise, Limited (‘The Company’ or together with its subsidiaries, ‘The Group’) announced on November, 19 its unaudited financial and operational review for the third quarter and the nine months ended 30 September 2009.

Profit attributable to the Company’s shareholders for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2009 amounted to HK$1,043 million and HK$2,201 million respectively, representing increases of 55.4% and 1.9% over the same periods of last year. Excluding the after-tax effect of revaluation of investment properties and major disposals, underlying net profit would have increased by 11.0% and 0.7% for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2009 respectively.

Turnover for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2009 amounted to HK$19,764 million and HK$54,811 million respectively, representing increases of 7.8% and 9.3% over the same periods of 2008.

Beverage business delivered an encouraging performance with earnings of HK$462 million and HK$803 million for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2009 respectively, representing increases of 53.5% and 79.6% over the same periods of last year.

Sales volume of beer rose 16.4% to approximately 7,115,000 kiloliters for the first nine months of 2009. Sales volume of ...More Info

Japan’s Asahi Breweries and group company Tsingtao Brewery Co. have agreed to forge closer ties to tap demand and stay competitive in China's high-growth beer market, AsiaPulse reported on November, 19.

At a joint press conference on November, 18, Asahi President Hitoshi Ogita and Tsingtao President Jin Zhiguo said the two companies would purchase barley and hops together in order to negotiate lower prices, and would use their respective facilities inside China to brew each other's beers. They also said the companies would consider ways of working together to strengthen sales.

Asahi Breweries spent roughly 64 billion yen (US$716 million) in April to acquire a 19.74 per cent stake in Tsingtao Brewery by purchasing shares from Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Ogita said that Asahi Breweries would fully back efforts by Tsingtao to expand its share of China's beer market, since this would enable Asahi to recover its investment in Tsingtao. The president added that working through Tsingtao to fortify Asahi's business in China would help the Japanese brewer return to the black there.

SABMiller surpassed Diageo as the largest UK drinks company by market value for the first time this week, as its share price rose 3.4 per cent to £17.14, The Times Online posted on November, 20.

Shares in the brewer of Miller and Grolsch soared after it announced that its first-half profits rose 6 per cent to $1.92 billion (£1.15 billion). It also announced a cost-cutting programme that it hopes will save $300 million a year by 2014.

SABMiller announced on November, 19 that Miller Brands, its UK operation, continues to deliver outstanding growth in a marketplace which saw premium lager decline by 3% over the same period (AC Nielsen).

According to AC Nielsen, in the six months 30 September 2009, Miller Brands grew its value share of UK premium lager to 6%, a growth of 16%, and is now looking for a new brand to expand on this success.

Peroni Nastro Azzurro delivered 35% year on year volume growth - the equivalent of an additional 23 million bottles. Pilsner Urquell has grown volumes by 26%. This contrasts with overall UK lager market volumes which declined 7% over the same period.

Nick Miller, MD of Miller Brands, said: "Our success is due in no small ...More Info

World’s second-largest brewer SABMiller plc has lost some share of its domestic beer market to Heineken, which started producing in South Africa for the first time, All Africa communicated on November, 20.

SABMiller gained rapid market share and now it's virtually stable, analysts believe.

The impact of the Heineken and Diageo joint venture, Sedibeng Brewery, with a capacity of 3-million hectolitres - a tenth of what SAB produces - will be limited. But the extra competition came during a period when the local giant was also hit by lower consumer spending, high costs and an exchange rate that went against the company.

SABMiller’s sales of lager, which accounts for almost two-thirds of the company's volumes, fell 2% by volume.

SAB has still fared relatively well in the current economic climate. The company's declines were still less than the overall contraction seen in retail sales, which fell 5,1% in September from a year ago, official figures this week showed.

Analysts were pleased with the outcome. "It's an absolutely stunning set of results. There is a lot more upside to come. The headwinds of raw material costs and volume contractions ... it is all going to turn around in 12-24 months. This is a hot stock," said ...More Info

French maltsters used 219,000 tons of barley in July/August, 12.4% less than a year ago, industry sources reported at the beginning of this month.

By coincidence, the U.K. malting industry used the same amount of 219,000 tons, which was, however, 17.6% less than in 2008/09.

German statistical publications are slower, as per annual statistics, July/June 2008/09 malt production was 1.842 mln tons vs. 1.895 mln a year before, but the April/June production was 10% less.

The trend towards a lower capacity usage is obvious, analysts sum up.

Plantings of winter grains have been favoured by warm and dry weather, an analysts’ research note informed on November, 2.

Though it has been too dry in South Europe, recent rainfalls alleviated fears of crop losses.

Forecasts of the 2010 acreage of spring barley are negative throughout Europe; they range from 10 to 40% less in the various countries and regions, averaging 15 – 20% below the plantings of 2009.

It will depend on the acreage and the outcome of the crop, whether malting barley supplies will be sufficient next year. In view of the expected carry-over from crop 2009, there is not a great concern yet, but the understandable disenchantment of farmers with malting barley is a threat. It could be overcome by more rewarding prices, analysts said.

The period when both the feed and malting barley markets in the US were just overwhelmed by the volume of grain they were trying to handle is over, Frayne Olson, NDSU Extension crops economist and marketing specialist, was quoted as saying by Farm & Ranch Guide on November, 19.

Things have gotten a little less congested in the past few weeks, causing barley prices to rise slightly, Olson claims.

“Some growers, especially malting barley farmers, are surprised that we haven't started to see more of a spread between the malting and feed starting to show up yet,” Olson said. “I do expect that to happen, but it's going to take a little more time.

“The maltsters currently have enough within the pipeline and their own storage facilities to meet their immediate needs. And as a buyer there is really no sense of urgency, no one is getting excited, they know the bins are full and they know there is a lot of really high quality barley out there.”

The key to future price improvement, according to Olson, will hinge on whether the US can start moving some barley, both feed and malting, into the international market. But at this time there is significant international ...More Info

Barley harvest in the southern hemisphere has just started and will last till early January, industry experts communicated early in November.

Australia had favourable weather conditions during winter and spring except in northern New South Wales and Queensland. A crop of 8.0 – 9.0 mln tons is forecast, quality should be predominantly good.

Brazil anticipates a good crop in Parana, but weather-damaged malting barley in Rio Grande do Sul.

Prospects in Argentina and Uruguay are called good, crops of 1.7 mln resp. 0.45 mln tons seem possible, if weather till and during harvest cooperates, experts said.

Sanna Taskila, Peter Neubauer, Mika Tuomola, Antje Breitenstein, Jukka Kronlöf5 and Tomi Hillukkala

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 177–182, 2009 Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are known as predominant beer spoilers. They cause turbidity, acidity, gas formation and offflavors in beer by formation of side metabolites. Beer spoiling LAB have a substantial financial impact in the brewing industry making their rapid detection and identification essential. Despite the developed rapid diagnostic methods, the bottleneck in detection remains the lengthy enrichment cultivation step. This paper describes the applicability of a novel glucose auto delivery system, EnBase™, for the improved enrichment cultivation of beer spoiling LAB in MRS medium. By means of the applied system, glucose is slowly released into the culture during growth, which results in faster enrichment. Growth of Lactobacillus brevis DSM 20054^T and several beer spoiling LAB was accelerated resulting in up to a 300% increase in the cell density after 48 h of cultivation compared to the commonly used MRS medium. A test of naturally contaminated beer samples indicated that the addition of glucose by means of EnBase allows faster detection of LAB in breweries.
Key words: beer spoilage, contaminant detection, enrichment cultivation, lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus.
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