Think of Lebanon and immediately pictures come to mind of a war-torn city bearing the scars of more than 20 years of fighting and the loss of more than 60,000 lives. Lebanon, a country of 3.6 million Arabs and Armenians, descended into chaos in the mid-1970s when Muslim and Christian militias fought each other in Beirut and the countryside. The infamous Green Line, a deadly no-man’s land, split the city.
In its darkest hours, terrorist bombings and kidnappings of Americans and other Westerners became a way of life in a city once considered the Paris of the Middle East where young, affluent urbanites would study at the American University of Beirut in the mornings and stroll along the Corniche in
the evening.A.L for an undisclosed sum.5 percent market share..

Oh dear. It must have been more than a storm in a tea cup. If Australia’s major brewer Carlton & United, CUB, (Foster’s Group) deems it necessary to explain the issue in its in-house magazine Cheers, then there must have been a real storm brewing out in the market.
In July it was hard to miss the considerable national press coverage given to changes in alcohol levels in a number of CUB’s national and regional beer brands, so we read in the most recent issue of Cheers. CUB’s Marketing Communications Manager David Park was quoted as saying that the reduction in alcohol was all about keeping beer affordable. "Since the early 1990s all Australian breweries have been exposed to regular, six-month price hikes in the Federal tax on alcohol in beer..

Once upon a time people did what they had to do and only talked about it afterwards. Nowadays they talk about doing it before they do it. Take Foster’s. At a recent investment conference, Foster’s Beringer Blass Wine Estates Managing Director Walter Klenz was quoted as saying that his company was looking for more scale in Europe.
What could he possibly mean? Well, that Foster’s was on the lookout for European wineries. Foster’s has convertible bonds valued at USD400 million which are due next October and the funds from these bonds could be used to finance an acquisition overseas.
In 2002 (end of June 2002) Foster’s turnover was USD2.5 billion and its market capitalisation USD5.2 billion. Southcorp’s turnover in the same period was USD1.2 billion..

For their faithful customers, Coopers Brewery of Adelaide released The Last Brew of Coopers Sparkling Ale from their now demolished Lea-brook brewery with a special commemorative back label. Needless to add that stocks were limited. A carton of 12 bottles costs A$36.

Although the 77 million inhabitants of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam only earn US$370 per year - that’s the country’s GDP per person - and drink less than a litre of beer per person per year, Foster’s Group decided to buy the assets of the Danang State Brewery for A$8 million (US$4.6 million) in July 2002. Foster’s announced that the purchase of the brewery and the Song Han licence would allow it to double the capacity of its own brewery at Danang, which is located halfway between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and serves a city of 400,000 people, to 6 million cases of beer (500,000 hl). Foster’s operates a third brewery outside Ho Chi Minh City. The deal gives Foster’s a 12 per cent share of the 7.5 million hl Vietnamese beer market.

Let’s start with a question: What is a pan-Asian beer brand? A brand like Tsingtao (China) or Singha (Thailand) which dominates its domestic market but has only marginal market share in Asia? Even the brand San Miguel, which comes out of Manila and claims to be the "Great Asian Beer" remains very much in the wings in markets other than the Philippines and Hong Kong. The same is true for Tiger, a brand which its parent Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) - the 70-year-old joint-venture between Heineken and Singapore’s Fraser & Neave - has taken around Southeast Asian markets and positioned as an international beer brand. "International" in this case meaning "Western". In the past, most of APB’s ads cast Caucasians to give Tiger a Western appeal. The strategy worked.e. Time will tell..

Despite industry-wide price cuts in June, low malt beer has apparently begun to suffer a fall in popularity. In the first six months of 2002, total beer and lowmalt beer sales fell 4.6 per cent year on year to 259.57 million cases (a case is equivalent to 20 633ml bottles), the second consecutive half-year drop. While regular beer sales declined 13.9 per cent to 158.7 million cases, those of happoshu rose 15 per cent to 100.86 million cases. That however compares with a 52.8 per cent jump in the first six months of 2001. Low malt beers accounted for 38.9 per cent of total beer sales.

Ah, the complexities of brewers’ relationships. Anheuser-Busch may contemplate upping its stake in Tsingtao Brewery, but this has not stopped Tsingtao from signing a marketing contract with Asahi Breweries to market its beer in Japan. In Japan, Budweiser is brewed and marketed by Kirin Brewing Company. A draft version of the beer that was developed jointly by Tsingtao and Asahi will be available in Japan from 28 August 2002, priced at ¥248 (US$2.0) for a 330ml bottle.
Tsingtao Beer has been imported into Japan since the 1980s. Mercian Corp. currently handles imports in Japan, but sales last year were a modest 90,000 cases. The Chinese company aims to boost sales in Japan by using the marketing network of Asahi, the domestic market leader in sales volume..

US brewer Anheuser-Busch, which owns 91.8% of the Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company in Wuhan, China’s 5th largest city, is said to be in exclusive talks with Tsingtao Brewery, China’s largest brewer, to increase its stake
in the company (5% in 2001). Shares in Tsingtao went up 19 per cent at the beginning of August after Tsingtao announced that it signed a pact with Anheuser-Busch to help Tsingtao develop its business in China. China is the world’s largest beer market after the United States and is believed to grow at about 6 per cent each year.
However, returns on investments are either very low or non-existent, write market observers at Canadean, because the market is expensive to supply. For many, going alone has proven very costly and often unprofitable.

Sometimes desperate measured are called for. In order to keep prices down, Australia’s two biggest brewers, Carlton & United Breweries (CUB), which is part of the Foster’s Group, and Lion Nathan have reduced the alcohol content of some of their top selling beer brands. That way they benefit from a lower excise rate. According to reports, CUB has lowered the alcohol level of its brand Carlton Draught and Carlton Cold to 4.7% Alc./Vol., although the alcohol content of its best selling beer, Victoria Bitter, remains at 4.9% Alc./Vol. The cuts in alcohol help to curb rising beer prices and should keep customers happy, especially since a spokesperson for CUB claimed that the changes were minor and equivalent to a teardrop of alcohol per can.