Craft brewers vote to exclude Big Brewers from their association
Australia’s small and independent brewers voted on 18 May 2017 to bar corporate brewers from membership of their trade body. What was the Craft Beer Industry Association will be renamed as the Independent Brewers Association.
Previously the association had allowed membership by companies such as Little Creatures, Malt Shovel (Lion) and Mountain Goat (Asahi), all of which are owned by Big Brewers.
Under the new rules, only craft brewers in which a large brewer has a stake of 20 percent or less are entitled to apply for membership.
While Lion had been a member of the old organisation and publically resigned in March 2017 to pre-empt being kicked out, Asahi was never a member. Asahi acquired the Mountain Goat brewery in late 2015.
The chair of the newly-named Independent Brewers Association is
Peta Fielding, who is the chief executive of the Burleigh Brewing Company in Burleigh, a town south of Brisbane.
She said that the big players simply don’t fit anymore, with the issues faced by small, independent players being totally different from those facing the brewing giants. The revamp meant the core – small independent brewers – would be in a better position to tackle the issues confronting them.
Tap contracts have long been a sore point for small brewers with allegations that Lion and CUB – which control more than 90 percent of beer taps through brands such as Tooheys and VB – use their dominance to edge out rival brewers from the AUD 2.5 billion (USD 1.9 billion) draught beer market.
For the past two years, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has looked closely at disquiet from craft brewers about the lack of access to tap beer outlets in hotels and bars, but to date has not issued a report which would substantiate craft brewers’ claims of unfair practices.
There are now more than 400 small, independent brewing businesses, up from just 200 when the association began five years ago. The industry directly employs more than 2,100 people and generates an estimated AUD 655 million (USD 488 million) in economic output.
While the craft beer industry has come a long way, the vast majority of beer produced in Australia still comes from the big breweries with the new small breweries contributing around five percent. “The fact is that most Australians still mostly swill the bland stuff,” industry commentator Dr Brett Stubbs said.
