Diageo plc, the world’s largest alcoholic drinks group, posted on February, 11 its results for the six months ended 31 December 2009.

Diageo’s net sales amounted to GBP5.2 bln, which represents an organic decrease of 2%. Operating profit decreased by 6% to GBP1.54 bln whereas profit attributable to parent company’ shareholders dropped by 10% to GBP1.02 bln.

"As we had anticipated this was a challenging six months. The economic and consumer environment remained weak in many markets and we faced a difficult comparison against Q1 last year yet the second quarter did show a return to growth,” CEO Paul Walsh commented.

The strong performance of Diageo's beer brands in Africa was the key driver of the overall performance with Harp in Nigeria and Tusker in Kenya being particular highlights. There was continued growth in Asia Pacific, net sales up 7%, and growth returned to North America, net sales up 6%, following the planned de-stock last year. In Europe, beer net sales declined by 4% primarily due to a slowdown of the category in Ireland.

Facing softer comparisons due to the planned de-stock which was undertaken in fiscal 2009, Diageo’s beer brands grew volume and net sales and gained 0.2 percentage points of share ...More Info

Japan’s brewer Kirin Holdings Company, Ltd. announced on February, 10 its financial results for the financial year ended December 31, 2009.

Total sales of beer, happoshu and new genre declined by 7.1% from a year earlier to 891.7 bln yen. Sales volume dropped by 2% to 3.26 mln kl in 2009 from 3.33 mln kl in 2008.

Kirin expects its total beer sales to increase by 2.6% to 915.0 bln yen in the fiscal 2010 as compared to FY2009. Sales volume is forecast to grow by 1.1% to 3.30 mln kl.

Kirin Holdings consolidated sales declined by 1.1% to 2.28 trillion yen in 2009, whereas its consolidated net income plummeted 38.7% to 49.1 bln yen.

2010 is the first year of Kirin’s 2010-2012 three-year medium-term business plan, and the company said it will continue focusing on generating group synergies and realizing lean management with the aim of improving profitability and asset efficiency.

The company, however, expects its consolidated sales to decline by 2.9% (to 2.22 trillion yen) and net income to reach just 48 bln yen (down 2.4% versus FY2009) in the current year.

Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) reported on February, 11 strong growth for Q1 ended 31 December 2009.

Attributable net profit before exceptional items (APBE) rose S$25.3 million or 56% to S$70.1 million versus last year, APB said.

Group profit before interest, tax and exceptional items (PBIT) recorded a significant gain of 50% or S$43.7 million to S$131 million.

Driven by stronger sales volume, revenue increased 10% to S$639.2 million as compared to the same period last year.

"The robust first quarter operating performance is largely driven by Indochina which saw a 35% increase in volume due to strong festive sales in the run-up to TET (Lunar New Year). This resulted in PBIT jumping 69% for the region," explained Mr Roland Pirmez, Chief Executive Officer of APB.

"Other factors throughout our regional operations that contributed to the Group's improved first quarter performance are price increases implemented late last year, higher volumes, an improved sales mix and lower prices for some packaging materials in the markets."

In addition to Indochina, New Zealand and Malaysia also fared well with PBIT increasing 35% and 24% respectively. New Zealand's improved results was due mainly to lower packaging cost, higher margins from price increases made last year, favourable sales mix ...More Info

Mexico’s second-largest brewer, Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (“FEMSA”) announced on February, 12 its operational and financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2009.

FEMSA Cerveza, the company’s brewing division which was recently sold for a 20 percent stake in Dutch brewer Heineken, increased total revenues by 7.6% in Q4 2009. Top-line growth mainly due to higher price per hectolitre in Mexican pesos, combined with operating expense containment offsetting raw material cost pressures due to year-over-year increases, resulting in growth of 8.6% in income from operations.

The unit’s full year total revenues increased 9.3%, mainly as a result of increases in average price per hectoliter across all its operations in local currencies. Income from operations increased 9.3%, as a result of top-line growth combined with operating expense containment offsetting continued raw material cost pressures.

FEMSA’s total beer sales volume in Q4 amounted to 11.1 mln hl (11.02 mln hl in Q4 2008), whereas its full year beer sales volume decreased by 1.2% to 40.54 mln hl.

Mexico sales volume increased 0.8% to 7.176 million hectolitres in 4Q09, in the context of a still challenging economic environment, particularly in our key northern markets. The Tecate brand family and Indio once again ...More Info

Vietnam’s largest brewers have reported positive performance for 2009, Le Courrier du Vietnam posted on February, 9.

Saigon-based SABECO produced more than 547 mln litres of beer last year. Sales amounted to 907 mln litres, up 6.7% on the brewer’s annual plan and 16.7% more than in 2008.

Hanoi-based HABECO reported sales of more than 450 mln litres, an increase of 21% versus 2008. Profits grew by just 0.03%, HABECO said.

However, the nation’s smaller brewers cannot report such results for the last year. Such is the case of Zozok, a joint venture between Vinamilk and SABMiller Asia plc, based in Binh Duong. The brewery has an annual capacity of 50 mln litres. Despite the fact that it should have benefited from Vinamilk’s large retail network across Vietnam, its sales remained so modest that Vinamilk was forced to sell its 50% stake in the venture to SABMiller in the first quarter of 2009.

In 2010, the country’s demand for beer is expected to reach about 2.4 bln litres. SABECO plans to brew 1.06 bln litres of beer, while HABECO targets 615 mln litres, or 37% more than last year. As for another leading brewer in Vietnam, the Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries intends to expand ...More Info

Japan's beer consumption, as measured by domestic shipments, fell to its lowest level last month since record-keeping began in 1992, MarketWatch reported on February, 11.

January shipments dropped 12.9% from the year-earlier month, according to industry data cited by Kyodo News, which attributed part of the fall to a drop in beer drinking by younger Japanese.

Regular beer shipments were down 11.9%, while those for low-malt "happoshu" beer plunged 32.8%, it said.

The only rise came in what the report described as "inexpensive, so-called third category beer-like alcoholic drinks," which nudged up 2.1%.

Axéréal, the leading French cereals cooperative and the parent of Boortmalt, announced on February, 11 it has signed an agreement to buy the fixed assets, trade and goodwill of Greencore pls malt division.

The completion of the agreement is conditional upon the approval by the Shareholders of Greencore in accordance with the Irish Listing Rules. An extraordinary General Meeting of Greencore plc is to be held on the 1st of March.

According to The Irish Times, the deal can be worth up to €116.25 million.

Axéréal’s malting subsidiary Boortmalt N.V. has currently a total capacity of 620,000 tons a year. The acquisition of Greencore Malt will raise the total capacity to more than 1.1 mln tonnes and will make Boortmalt Group the 5th largest maltster worldwide. The head office of the company is located in Antwerp, Belgium.

“I believe that both businesses are very complementary, and each of them benefits from a very strong reputation among their respective brewers, distillers and food manufacturers,” Boortmalt CEO Yvan Schaepman commented.

David Wilkes who currently holds the position of CEO Greencore Malt will assist Mr. Schaepman as deputy CEO of the entire group, the company said in its official statement.

Greencore has two malting plants in Scotland, at Buckie ...More Info

France’s prospects for barley exports have been revised downwards again despite decreasing prices, FranceAgriMer posted on February, 10.

As a result, the number of barley offers into intervention has been on the rise in the last several days.

France is expected to export to other EU nations about 3.8 mln tonnes in 2009/10, however, FranceAgriMer reduced the forecast volume by 80 thousand tonnes as compared to the previous forecast posted in January. The agency expects lower sales to Belgium and Germany.

Forecasts for exports to third countries have also been reduced by 100 thousand tonnes, though exports of malting barley to China are expected to increase in the next several months.

As at February 5, more than 740 thousand tonnes of barley were offered into intervention stocks in France, FranceAgriMer reported.

China, the world’s largest beer producer, is also the largest importer of malting barley, purchasing about 1.7 mln tonnes of the commodity in 2009, La Depeche posted on February, 12.

The trend is expected to persist, as Chinese farmers do not prefer barley to other grain due to lack of guaranteed prices, experts said.

In 2008/09, China’s beer output totalled 410 mln hl. Over the last decade, it has grown by 8-10% annually. As a consequence of the global economic crisis of 2008, the growth rate is expected to slow down and then stabilize at about +3% annually for the next five years, Joe Fung, head of purchasing department at China’s largest maltster Supertime.

According to official estimates, China’s malting barley output was 2 mln tonnes in 2009, whereas the nation’s demand for the commodity was 3.4 mln tonnes. About 744 thousand tonnes were imported from Australia, 385 thousand tonnes – from Canada, and about 440 thousand tonnes – from France.

“Production of malting barley risks decreasing or even disappearing as there are no guaranteed prices for this crop unlike the prices set by the state for wheat or maize,” Li Zhao Yu from France Export Cereales said.

“However, the nation plans to be ...More Info

Barley crops in the Mercosur countries were very disappointing, industry analysts summed up in a research note at the beginning of February.

The south of Brazil and Uruguay were hit by heavy rainstorms during harvest time, Argentina suffered from drought and heat from planting till harvesting. Rio Grande do Sul lost at least half of its crop potential of 100,000 tons, total receivals in Brazil are estimated at 130,000 tons. There is a large carry-over from last year’s crop of 50-75,000 tons, but the total demand is 550,000 tons.

Harvest losses in Uruguay are put at 100,000 tons. The country may just be able to cover its domestic needs of 300,000 tons.

Argentina harvested 1.45 – 1.5 mln tons of barley, much of it with a high percentage of small grains and high protein. Locals estimate that 250 – 500,000 tons are no more than feed barley. Obviously maltsters and brewers try to select every ton of maltable barley, albeit of low quality, which explains the different estimates of receivals.

In the meantime, AmBev is contemplating to import 100-150,000 tons of malting barley from abroad, and SABMiller must probably redirect part of its purchase contracts from Argentina to other origins, it ...More Info

Makoto Kanauchi, Jérôme Milet and Charles W. Bamforth

J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 232–237, 2009 ABSTRACT
Barley kernels contain a single oxalate oxidase located in the embryo and aleurone. It is already present in substantial quantities in unmalted grain and increases in activity during germination. It displays a very broad pH optimum: the optimum was at pH 4.0, but the enzyme still displayed more than 50% of its activity at pH 7. Oxalate oxidase is highly resistant to heat. However, its low affinity for oxygen suggests that it probably does not play a major role in the consumption of oxygen in mashing. The decrease in oxalic acid levels late in germination may be a result of oxalate oxidase action. Oxalic acid was not detected in raw barley. Key words: barley, malting, mashing, oxalate oxidase, oxalic acid.
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