Suntory Holdings Ltd.’s founding family is trying to gain at least a one-third stake in the company that will be formed after Japan’s second-biggest drinks maker is sold to Kirin Holdings Co., Bloomberg cited on February 5 two people familiar with the talks.

By securing a stake of at least 33.4 percent, Suntory President Nobutada Saji and other family members would gain the power to veto major company decisions, including takeovers, in what would become one the world’s largest brewing companies.

Japan’s two largest beverage makers announced they were in merger talks in July as a declining population and stagnant economy saps demand for their products at home. According to a report by The Daily Yomiuri, the companies had agreed to the Suntory family holding more than a one-third stake. Suntory spokeswoman Naoko Tsuda and Kirin spokesman Jun Sato said there was no agreement and negotiations are continuing.

“Kirin may want this merger to go through even if it has to give the Suntory family veto power,” said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, an analyst at Shinsei Securities Co. in Tokyo. “It’s important for Kirin as it hopes the companies can complement each other in products and sales as they continue their expansion overseas.”

Uniting the century-old ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch InBev saw U.S. beer sales drop 12.2% last month compared to last January, Stltoday.com cited the brewer’s internal sales figures on February, 4.

The brewer’s total U.S. beer sales, for both domestic and imports, stood at 4.45 million barrels for the month. That was 616,000 fewer barrels than it sold last January — and 39,000 barrels below what was projected for January 2010.

The company declined to comment on the numbers ahead of its annual report, due in a few weeks.

The January sales numbers hint that 2010 could be a tougher year for brewers than even 2009 -when the U.S. beer market shrank by the biggest number since the mid-1950s.

AB InBev’s U.S. sales fell 1.9% last year from 2008, it is presumed.

Beer maker Budvar registered a one percent growth in sales to Kc2.1 bln last year but beer output fell by 2 percent to 1.29 million hectolitres, the company's spokesman Petr Samec was quoted as saying by CTK on February, 4.

Outflow of consumers was not seen and exports to some countries grew. Sales are expected to fall this year, however. They will be affected by the economic crisis and higher excise duty and VAT.

Beer production in the Czech Republic decreased by 5 percent or more last year, according to estimates of experts, and Budvar therefore considers its results as very good.

More exact data will be made public in the course of the year but Budvar thinks they will be better than in 2008.

Budvar raised exports to Germany by 10 percent last year and now a third of the exports target this country. Over 50,000 hectolitres of lager were exported to Austria, the highest volume ever.

Budvar invested Kc320 mln last year and this year's investments are planned at Kc330 mln, mainly into the modernisation of bottling lines and raising of their capacity.

Almost 50 percent of Budvar's output is exported to more than fifty countries. Lager Budweiser Budvar is its key brand. It ...More Info

Turkey’s top appeals court ruled that the country’s biggest brewer, Anadolu Efes, cannot buy beer brand Tekel, overturning a ruling by the antitrust regulator, Anatolia news agency reported on February, 4.

Anadolu Efes’s purchase of the Tekel brand, approved by the regulator in August last year, would “significantly reduce competition in the market” and strengthen the buyer’s already dominant market position, the court in Ankara ruled in a unanimous verdict, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, Efes Breweries International, a unit of the Middle East’s biggest brewer, said its lenders agreed to reduce interest costs on about $300 million of loans.

Amsterdam-based Efes, part of Turkey’s Anadolu Efes, will pay interest of 3 percentage points more than benchmark lending rates on the loans, compared with 4.75 percentage points when the loans were signed, it said in a statement on February, 5.

The repricing will reduce annual interest by $5.25 million, according to Bloomberg calculations.

HSBC Holdings, National Bank of Greece, Akbank, Halk Bankası, WestLB and Yapı & Kredi Bankası arranged the loans in July 2009. The facility, comprised of 107 million euros ($148 million) and $150 million of term loans, matures in 2012.

South Korea’s leading beer maker Hite Brewery Co. has said this week its earnings nearly doubled last year on increased sales of beer, AsiaPulse reported on February, 4.

The brewer’s net profit reached 99.2 billion won (US$85.9 million) in 2009, compared with a profit of 52.8 billion won a year earlier.

Sales increased 89 per cent to 1.02 trillion won over the cited period, and operating income also jumped 82 per cent to 183 billion won, the company said.

Last year was horrible for the brewing giants of the US but craft brewers saw shipments leap almost nine percent, St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted on February, 5.

The nation’s total beer shipments were down 2.2 percent from 2008, the worst single-year decline since the mid-1950s, according to trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights.

Anheuser-Busch was off 2.1 percent nationwide. MillerCoors was down 1.9 percent. Both companies combined represent almost 80 percent of the U.S. market.

At the same time, craft brewers added capacity, tapped new markets, some of them even hired people - notable in an industry that has been making headlines with layoffs.

Two craft brewers, Boston Beer Co. and Yuengling of Pottsville, Pa., managed to do so well in 2009 that they are now too big to be called craft brewers (defined as producing fewer than 2 million barrels a year).

"The trend is toward flavor, innovation and localness, which craft is playing on," said Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer's Insights.

Craft brewers - made up of regional brewers, micro-brewers and brew-pubs - still occupy a small niche, hundreds of brewers who together add up to about 4.7 percent of the U.S. beer market.

But the stouts, porters and ales that ...More Info

Russia and the Ukraine have established themselves as the principal barley exporters of the world, industry analysts summed up earlier this month.

The USDA estimates the 2009/10 barley exports of the Ukraine to reach 6.0 mln tons vs. 5.871 mln last year, Russian shipments to account for 2.0 mln tons after 3.598 mln in 2008/09.

Together their share of the world trade is 47%, experts estimate.

Planting forecasts for the Ukraine are up from last year, 1.590 mln ha winter barley (last year 1.350) and 3.6 mln ha spring barley (3.7). An early S/D for the coming grain year forecasts 5.9 mln tons of barley exports, more or less unchanged from the present campaign.

Ukraine, however, suffers badly from the economic crisis, it cannot or will not refund VAT payments on export shipments, it is reported.

UK maltsters are likely to buy around 1.9 million tonnes in total of malting barley from the 2010 crop, the Maltsters Association of Great Britain communicated on February, 3.

Individual maltsters have always drawn up their detailed intended purchase lists, but such information is both confidential and commercial. However, in an effort to help growers understand the market's needs they have agreed that the MAGB can collate information on the nitrogen bands that maltsters purchase in, and show the significance of those bandings for spring and winter varieties in Scotland and England, the Association said.

France’s winter barley plantings are expected to decrease by 10-12% in the nearest future, La France Agricole reported on February, 3.

The nation’s plantings of spring barley are expected to drop even more significantly - by up to 30%, Arvalis experts estimate.

Farmers are reacting this way to constantly falling prices resulting from huge barley supply.

Besides, the French spring barley is endangered by the introduction of new regulations on nitrates and crop rotation which raises the costs of growing this crop.

The demand for high-quality malting barley will not decrease, but winter barley varieties may become the prevailing crop, experts believe.

China’s malting barley imports totalled 1.6 mln tonnes in January – November 2009, industry sources reported on February, 1.

About 819,000 tonnes were imported from Australia, 416,000 – from Canada, and 360,000 tonnes – from France.

Local estimates of malting barley receivals in 2009/10 are 2,080,000 tons.

Guy Derdelinckx

ABSTRACT Recent progress of science and technology in the disciplines of brewing have clearly shown that several molecules of the polyphenolic family have a very positive role when they are used and handled correctly during the process. After reviewing the state of art of the science at each step of the production process, from raw raw materials till conditioned beer, it is demonstrated too that it’s worthy to reduce the quantity of sensitive polyphenols in raw materials and adjuncts. The conclusions reveals the contradictions of results between references due to the analytical methods but advise in practice the removal of the partial and total oxidized fractions before fermentation and the addition of fresh typical beer flavanoids by boiling and filling, as recommended by other authors.
Key words: Beer, polyphenols, phenolic acids, flavonoids, flavanoids, polymerization, depolymerisation
Cerevisia, 33 (4) 2008 http://www.cerevisia.eu