SABMiller plc, the world’s second-largest brewer, published on April, 20 an update on trading for the 12 months to 31 March 2010.

On an organic basis (excluding the effects of acquisitions and disposals) lager volumes for the year were level with the prior year, following growth of 2% in the fourth quarter. Consumer demand has been hampered by adverse global economic conditions throughout the year, although some of the emerging markets in which the brewer operates started to show signs of recovery towards the end of the financial year, it said.

Volumes in the fourth quarter benefited from this trend, as well as being assisted by a weak prior year comparative base and, in some markets, the timing of Easter 2010.

In the second half of the year, SABMiller increased its investment behind key brands and continued to invest in capacity in growth markets. As anticipated, during the second half, the year on year beneficial effect of prior year price increases and cost efficiencies gradually decreased but stronger operating currencies will benefit its reported results, the brewer said.

The group's financial performance for the year remains in line with its expectations.

In Latin America, lager volumes grew ...More Info

Dutch brewing giant Heineken N. V. said on April, 21 its first quarter 2010 revenue declined 3.5% to €2,936 million, due to changes in consolidation scope, whilst the effect of lower volume was partly offset by better pricing and sales mix improvement.

Organically, revenue was 2.2% lower, as the improvement in selling prices and sales mix (+2.4%) could only partly offset the effect of lower volume on revenue (-4.6%). The effect of weaker foreign currencies was limited, Heineken said.

EBIT (beia) grew mid-single digit driven by lower costs and improved pricing and sales mix, which more than offset the effect of lower volume on EBIT. Organic EBIT (beia) growth was slightly higher as the impact of currencies against the euro (-€6 million) and the negative effect of first time (de)consolidation were limited. Heineken’s Total Cost Management programme (TCM) achieved further savings across most cost categories. Investments in brands increased. Reported EBIT increased substantially versus the first quarter 2009, due to a €142 million pre-tax exceptional book gain realised on the transfer of subsidiaries in Indonesia and New Caledonia, in line with the press release of 7 December 2009. Net profit (beia) increased driven by higher EBIT and lower “Other net ...More Info

SABMiller is starting to gain pricing power in China, in a sign that years of consolidation in the world’s largest beer market are starting to bear fruit for industry leaders, The Financial Times reported on April, 20.

“We will be able to take more incremental price increases,” Ari Mervis, managing director for SABMiller’s Asian business and chairman of its joint venture in China, is quoted as saying by The Financial Times. “This is unusual in a market that has historically been averse to price rises.”

SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, operates in China through its joint venture China Resources Snow Breweries. CRSB owns Snow, the world’s best-selling beer brand, which has about a fifth of the Chinese beer market.

SABMiller said that lager volumes in China grew 10 per cent in the 12 months to March 31, driven by market share gains, compared with flat growth overall.

While China accounts for 20 per cent of all beer consumed worldwide, it contributes only 3 per cent of global brewing profits and profits per hectolitre in China were US$30 last year compared to a global average of US$100, according to Redburn Research.

As brewers in China were busy consolidating over most of the past decade, they focused ...More Info

Beer and liquor stores and agencies sold C$19.4 billion worth of alcoholic beverages during the year ending March 31, 2009, up 3.0% from the previous year, Statistics Canada reported on April, 20.

Beer stores and agencies sold C$8.8 billion worth of beer during the year ending March 31, 2009, up 2.2% from the previous year. Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta were the largest contributors to this growth.

Beer remained by far the most popular alcoholic beverage in terms of both volume and dollar value, although its market share declined, Statistics Canada said.

In 1993, beer peaked at 53% of dollar sales and wine accounted for 18%. By 2009, the market share of beer had declined to 46%, while wine had captured 29%.

In terms of volume, beer stores and agencies sold 2.3 billion litres of beer in 2009, a 0.9% increase from the previous year. On a per capita basis, beer sales have declined 28% from their peak of 115.2 litres in 1976 to 83.5 litres in 2009.

The growth in volume of sales of imported beer continued to outpace that of domestic products. The volume of imported beer sold increased 7.8% in 2009, while sales of domestic products remained unchanged.

By volume, imported beer has ...More Info

World’s No. 2 brewer SABMiller plc plans to bid for a 12.25% stake in Chongqing Brewery Co, which is currently 17.46%-owned by Carlsberg Group, the Economic Observer reported on April, 16, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter as saying.

Last week, Chongqing Beer (Group) Co, the largest shareholder of Chongqing Brewery, said that it plans to sell 59.30 million shares, or a 12.25% stake, in Chongqing Brewery, adding that domestic and overseas bidders should submit bidding documents within in ten working days after the announcement.

SABMiller, the London-based brewer, holds a 49% stake in China Resources Snow Breweries.

Shanghai-listed Chongqing Brewery sold 1 million kiloliters of beer last year, 2.11% more than in 2008. The company's net profit attributable to shareholders rose 10.91% year on year, hitting RMB 181 million and operating revenue was RMB 2.26 billion, up 6.56% from a year earlier, according to an earlier report from China Knowledge.

In 2010, the brewery aims to sell 1.12 million kL to reap RMB 2.59 billion in operating revenue. Capital expenditure could reach RMB 1.49 billion.

Beijing Yanjing Brewery recorded operating revenue and net profit of 2.087 billion yuan and 30.76 million yuan in the first quarter of this year, NetEase cited a company filing on April, 20.

The brewer’s operating revenue and net profit thus grew by 10.32 percent and 26.54 percent respectively year-on-year.

The company sold 940,000 kiloliters of beer in the first quarter, of which its own products accounted for 890,000 kiloliters, an increase of 5.95 percent year-on-year.

At the beginning of the financial and economic crisis brewers, especially the large groups, reduced both stocks and purchase contracts sharply, an analysts’ research note posted earlier this month reminds.

Brewers had to cope with lower disposable incomes of consumers, with higher beer taxes in a number of countries, with anti-smoking laws, and a continuing trend towards wine and other beverages in the richer countries.

Statistics show that beer sales dropped less than malt purchases by brewers: Japan, China, Russia and Ukraine are the extreme examples of reducing malt input in beer, for different reasons and with different replacements.

China’s malt basis of beer is about 7 kilos/hl, Russia reduced its malt input by at least 50% and brews a number of beers exclusively with raw barley and enzymes.

All over the world usage of malt substitutes has increased, most often to the detriment of beer quality.

Recently Euromalt, the European maltsters’ association, and Pilsner Urquell, the No. 1 brewer of the Czech Republic, have protested the continuing change of the product “beer” to an unspecific drink, and asked for legal help to protect the “real beer”, which is not exclusively, but mainly brewed of malt, water, hops and yeast.

Although there is strong support from southern and eastern EU countries for the French proposal to maintain most of the traditional CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), there is little doubt that the new grain year will begin without the intervention protection for barley, industry analysts communicated at the beginning of this month.

The EU therefore must compete with Black Sea markets for the disposal of its barley surpluses, and the effect on market prices could be dramatic, both for feed and malting barley, experts believe.

In case of great price pressure, barley acreage in the EU will drop fast in the years to come. Safer crops, and the demand for ethanol, bio-diesel and bio-gas support the larger production of wheat, maize and rapeseed to the detriment of barley, it is forecast.

Jiří Čulík, Marie Jurková, Tomáš Horák, Pavel Čejka, Vladimír Kellner, Josef Dvořák, Pavel Karásek and Michal Roth

J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 220–225, 2009
ABSTRACT
The EBC method 7.7, currently used for determination of bitter acids in hop products, is a time-consuming and laborious extraction technique. In this paper, our aim was to propose a new extraction method based on Pressurized Solvent Extraction (PSE) sometimes also called Pressurized Fluid Extraction (PFE) or Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE). Compared to conventional extractions, PSE offers a number of important benefits. PSE on OnePSE® automated extractor was used for extraction of ?- and ß-acids from hops and hop products and the parameters influencing extraction efficiency and the influence of the sample preparation method were studied. The quantitative determination of ?- and ß-acids in the extracts was accomplished by using an HPLC apparatus equipped with diode array detector. The experimental results were compared with those obtained by the standard EBC 7.7 method and the two methods were found to be fully compatible Key words: analysis, bitter acids, hops, hop products, pressurized solvent extraction, PSE. Load full article, 6 pages, 211kb , PDF file