Closure of Foster’s Bluetongue brewery long overdue
It served its purpose while SABMiller was in a joint venture with Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA). Now that SABMiller own CUB, the former Australian unit of Foster’s, they decided to close the Bluetongue brewery down. Dozens of workers at this New South Wales brewery are set to lose their jobs, when the plant is shut down by the end of the year, media reported in January 2014.
CUB will "re-install" equipment from Bluetongue’s Warnervale site into the company’s broader network, starting from May.
The Bluetongue brewery originally was founded by four Hunter Valley businessmen – Philip Hele, Bruce Tyrrell, Ian Burford and Paul Hannan – back in 2001. In 2005, they sold a half stake to John Singleton, a radio and television star turned adman. Mr Singleton quickly put his marketing touch on the brand and within five years the beer had gone from a boutique brand to one sold in every state of Australia.
Mr Singleton and his partners cashed in just before 2007, selling Bluetongue to Pacific Beverages, the Australian joint venture between SABMiller and CCA, for a price estimated at AUD 30 million (USD 27 million).
CCA’s Chief Executive Terry Davis said at the time: “We have been looking for a local premium beer brand for some time, and we couldn’t have found anything more authentically Australian than Bluetongue.”
Together CCA and SABMiller built a nominally 500,000 hl new brewery (it probably never exceeded 300,000 hl) for the official cost of AUD 120 million (USD 107 million), which was actually more like AUD 135 million because it had to accommodate different brewers’ eccentric techniques, particularly SABMiller’s.
It produced Peroni Nastro Azzuro and Peroni Legera, plus Miller Genuine Draft, Grolsch, Miller Chill, Bluetongue and a new brand, Bruers Bright.
With the closure of the brewery, the production of Peroni will be transferred to another CUB brewery, while Grolsch and Miller will be once again imported.
A SABMiller company review had found it had too many breweries across the country. So the Bluetongue brewery had to go.
A CUB spokesman was quoted as saying: “Things have changed significantly since the site was built. Warnervale is now part of the much larger and established national CUB network and this has resulted in excess brewing capacity, particularly as the overall beer market remains challenging.
This decision has an impact on the Bluetongue brand, which will be phased out and discontinued over the coming months. The brand was important to Pacific Beverages but has been in decline over recent years. CUB has a well-established set of core beer brands and was not in a position to continue to invest in the brand.”
Mr Singleton has publically railed against CUB, claiming his beer was left to wither. By last year it was available in only some parts of the country. He allegedly complained it was harder to get his beer than a can of VB (owned by CUB) and offered to buy the brand back.
“I offered to buy it off them, take it off their hands, but they weren’t interested,” he was quoted as saying.
He added: “Just to think, this mob [SABMiller] has taken a brand that was a bigger seller than Cascade to absolutely nothing in little over a year. A remarkable effort.”
