The Casella family, famous for producing Australia's best known wine brand Yellow Tail, finally confirmed in April 2012 that they plan to become a player in the Australian beer market. Tara Tara! But why has it taken them so long to declare their intention? For almost a year, the Casellas have had their newly-built 300,000 hl brewery sitting idle. From what we have heard, the family spent AUD 130 million (USD 128 million) on this brewery, which is located right next to their 3 million hl winery in Griffith, a town 600 km to the west of Sydney. They had even recruited staff: brewers Andy Mitchell, formerly with South African Breweries and Anthony Clem, a veteran of Lion Nathan plus Fiona Seath, a marketer, who used to work for Heineken in the UK.

In terms of volumes, the beer markets of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, New Zealand and Guam don’t spell "BIG". But having secured multi-year agreements to distribute brews such as Modelo’s Corona Extra, Carlsberg’s eponymous brand and Molson Coors’ Coors Light, Carling and Cobra brands in these countries, Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) will be able to prove itself a worthy distribution partner for these global brewers ahead of its return to the Australian beer market in 2014.

Australian media report that Foster’s has had a rough start under new owner SABMiller, losing contracts that accounted for almost 10 percent of sales by volume, while seeing its flagship VB beer brand continuing to decline.

While the Corona contract has been moved from Foster’s to Lion, its sister brands Negra Modelo and Pacifico are still stuck in limbo. No one seems to want them. Australia’s largest privately-owned brewer Coopers has recently ruled itself out of contention for Corona’s sister brands, rightly feeling miffed that it was not given the big Corona contract (600,000 hl sales in 2011), despite having been invited to its auction by Grupo Modelo. This has led to speculation that Lion could end up with the Mexican beers after all.

After making significant investments into five Greenfield breweries in the last four years, Danish brewer Carlsberg is looking for a site to set up one more brewery in India. The company currently operates five manufacturing units in the country. It has breweries in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Its Medak (a place 70 km away from Hyderabad city in Southern India) brewery, which has one million hectoliter capacity, also supplies to Kerala and Karnataka. Medak brewery was set up in Dec 2010 with a capacity of half a million hectoliters. It has recently doubled the capacity to one million hectoliters at this brewery.

Kirin and Asahi announced on 9 May 2012 that their January-March results were down on a year-on-year basis, it was reported. Kirin Holdings and Asahi Group posted smaller consolidated operating profits. In most years, brewers face higher expenses in the first quarter, pouring money into promoting new products for the high-consumption summer months. However, they reduced spending on advertising and promotions last year as part of a post-disaster moderation trend.

Although it had been rumoured for months, it was only announced in early May 2012 that as of 1 July 2012 Coopers Brewery and its distribution arm, Premium Beverages, will brew and distribute Carlsberg beer in Australia.

Traditional cider makers have been worried about rumours that, following the Federal Budget on 8 May 2012, their products will be taxed at a rate similar to that applied to RTDs – pre-mixed spirit and cider-based products.

Carlsberg is rolling out a rejuvenation programme of Tuborg, one of the top 10 international premium brands.

... and is already setting its sights on the future. In April 2012 Australia’s biggest independent brewer bought America’s largest home-brew brand, consolidating its position as leader of the global home-brew market.