Will Foster’s be trembling in their boots? Coca-Cola Amatil chief Terry Davis has warned former joint-venture partner SABMiller, the new owner of brewing major Foster’s, that he will be back in the Australian beer market in 2014. Speaking at the release of the Coca-Cola Amatil’s (CCA) annual results on 22 February 2012, Mr Davis said expansion into the alcoholic beverage sector remained a "core strategy for CCA".

When the supermarket chain Coles began selling two-litre bottles of house brand milk for AUD 2 (USD 2.12) in January last year, a discount of up to 33 percent that was instantly matched by larger rival Woolworths and German-owned discounter Aldi, Australia’s brewer-cum-dairy-company Lion knew they were in for a rough year.

It’s that time of the year for Coca-Cola and Pepsi: Infamous Indian summer is just around the corner and cola companies in this geographically wide market react to the weather, with temperatures reaching up to 42–45 degree Celsius during the four month (April – July) period. In an early move, before the onset of summer, Coca-Cola India has decided to reduce prices for its 200 ml returnable glass bottle. The price of Coke bottles will be cut by INR 2 to a uniform Rs 8 across the country. Competitor Pepsi may do the same as the 200 ml glass bottle segment is very price-sensitive as most of its sales come from rural areas and small towns. Glass bottles account for around 35 percent of sales, PET bottles account for 63 percent and cans for 2 percent of total cola sales in the country.

Something’s brewing… in Israel

2011 was all about beer. Newspapers, magazines, blogs. Microbreweries got tons of great press. So BRAUWELT International went to the Middle East to find out what’s really going on.

Foster’s Australia (now acquired by SABMiller) can look forward for respite in a tax litigation, which has been going on India for a few years now. As our readers know, SABMiller had acquired Foster’s India from Foster’s Australia Ltd in 2006, for USD 120 million. The tangible and intangible assets of Foster’s India were taken over by SABMiller. The matter is sub-judice in a Pune court. Earlier, Foster’s Australia had approached the Authority of Advanced Ruling (AAR), a quasi-judicial body which ruled against the company and said the Australian beer company’s sale of brand and trademarks to SABMiller in India was taxable in the country.

Given that AB-InBev’s Budweiser is already dominating the profitable premium beer segment, SABMiller’s decision to launch its Miller Genuine Draft brand (MGD) in the Zhejiang region smacks of a five-to-twelve-effort.

Total shipments of beer and beer-like drinks in Japan dropped 3.7 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to a record low of 442.39 million cases. Although declining beer consumption is nothing new to Japan, last year’s decline was partly due to the massive March earthquake and tsunami that disrupted supplies, industry data, which was released on 17 January 2012, showed.

In the final quarter of 2011 Australian beer consumption is believed to have dropped 6 percent. In view of the fact that the last quarter of the year is the main drinking season – the Australian summer – the decline spells an unmitigated disaster.

In duopoly markets, foreign brewers often find themselves in a spot of bother: who shall brew their brands under license? In Australia, Kirin-owned Lion Nathan has emerged with the lion’s share of Australia’s top-selling imported beers, with Foster’s losing the rights to brew and distribute Stella Artois in one of the first effects of its takeover by SABMiller.

This is no small achievement for Australia’s third largest and still family-owned brewery: Coopers Brewery reported that beer production had lifted slightly to a record 629,000 hl in 2010/2011while the total beer market declined 6 percent.