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Asia/Australia
Is yours a Cobra or a Kingfisher? Indian beers have been round the UK’s 9,000 or so curry houses for years without making any real inroads into the more traditional beer market. This is not for lack of trying. Ever since brewer Molson Coors took a majority stake (50.1 percent) in Cobra Beer Partnership Ltd, a joint venture set up in 2009 with Cobra’s founder Lord Karan Bilimoria, volume sales have grown and in 2010 Cobra made its first ever profit in over a decade – it was founded in 1989. It is estimated to sell about 270,000 hl in the UK.
Asia/Australia
It’s a cruel world if you are a stock market-listed company. Only a week after Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) issued a profit warning, saying that EBIT for the six months ending June were expected to fall 8 or 9 percent, the first fall in first-half earnings for seven years, analysts argued that time was up for CCA and that it should seek to merge with rivals Lion or Foster’s.
Asia/Australia
The recent spat between Coca-Cola Amatil’s CEO Terry Davis and Australia’s major retailers over why CCA’s products are several times more expensive in Australia than, for example, in Thailand, is as much a political battle as it is an economic one.
Asia/Australia
In an April 2013 submission to the Federal Treasury, Carlton & United Breweries (CUB), the Australian unit of SABMiller (formerly known as Foster’s) maintained that "the beer industry is no longer recession proof and it’s time that beer received similar favours to those enjoyed by wine and other beverages." CUB asked the Treasurer to follow the lead of the UK government, which earlier this year cut beer excise for the first time in over half a century, saying that tax now makes up 50 percent of the price of a case of VB, its major-selling beer.
Asia/Australia
In order to stuff the big holes in the country’s budget, the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, has doubled the sales tax on beer. On 23 April 2013 the Knesset’s financial committee decided to increase the sales tax on beer to NIS 4.20 (EUR 0.90) from NIS 2.18 (EUR 0.46) per litre, despite sharp criticism from industrial brewers and noisy protests from the many smaller breweries, which in Israel are called "beer boutiques". The Finance Ministry expects the sales tax increase to sweep about an extra EUR 60 million into their coffers.
Asia/Australia
Since Lion, Foster’s and even Coca-Cola Amatil are so heavily into craft beers, Asahi decided it did not want to be the odd one out. But rather than develop its own craft beer brand, at the end of April 2013 it decided to buy a brand that was already launched in 2009: Cricketers Arms.
Asia/Australia
That's tough: stumbling in the home straight. For years, Diageo, the world's number one drinks group, has tried to buy part of Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits group. In November 2012 it finally managed to clinch a deal for a 53 percent stake in the company.
Asia/Australia
The new Crafty Beggars range of beers, produced by Lion, has been banned by a retailer because its advertising material is “an insult to a great industry". In early March 2013 the retailer Liquorland Newmarket tweeted that it would no longer stock Crafty Beggars brews due to the tagline causing a backlash among drinkers.
Asia/Australia
India is a tough beer market to operate for every foreign beer company. Besides central regulations, the beer companies have to face regulations of each state in which it operates. However, this time the regulatory hurdle for a foreign beer producer didn’t come from India, rather from US Securities & Exchange Commission. Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Indian joint venture, which has been struggling to get a foothold in the Indian market, is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Asia/Australia
On the face of it, the former Foster’s wine business, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), on 28 February 2013 posted disappointing half year results to the end of December 2012: net profits fell 23.2 percent to AUD 45 million (USD 45.9 million) and net sales dipped 3.4 percent to AUD 816.9 million, while EBIT dropped 20 percent to AUD 73.4 million and volumes slipped 2.5 percent to 16.5 million cases.
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BRAUWELT on tour
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BRAUWELT on tour
