New Bluetongue Brewery to open in 2010
Plans for the new Bluetongue Brewery at Warnertown (NSW Central Coast), north of Sydney, are currently on display for comment at the Wyong Council offices. The brewery, to be built by Pacific Beverages - a joint venture between Coca Cola Amatil and SABMiller - is expected to open in 2010.
The entry of the company into the local beer market underscores a big change sweeping through the sector, reports John Harvey from Adelaide. The joint venture partners say that they will achieve 500,000 hl of beer annually – that is 3 percent of Australia’s 17 million hl beer market.
At present, Pacific Beverages import SABMiller’s brands, which add variety to Australia’s import segment. The popularity of import brands – both locally produced under license or imported properly – has been to the detriment of domestic brands. Although the nation’s once almighty brand Victoria Bitter (VB), owned by the Fosters Group, is still clearly the number one beer, its market share has slipped from just under 30 percent in 1999 to 19 percent in 2007 and just over 17 percent in July 2008 according to Nielsen. Experts believe that Australia is unlikely to ever see such a dominant brand as VB again. The phenomenon of ‘premiumisation’ is taking hold and low-carbohydrate beers headed by Pure Blonde and mid-strength brews led by XXXX Gold are eroding the market shares of the older mass-market beers.
