Molson Coors and AB-InBev buy two craft breweries

Hola! AB-InBev and Molson Coors want to get in on the action early before prices go through the roof.

Since 2011 Spain has seen a boom in craft breweries, rising from nearly none to 450 in May 2016. Most are really nanobreweries, including Madrid’s la Virgen (Virgin), a 4,000 hl beer company, which was snatched up by AB-InBev’s venture capital unit, ZX Ventures, in early January 2017.

Financial details were not disclosed. However, AB InBev confirmed that it has acquired all the shares of La Virgen, a company founded in 2011 by a group of young entrepreneurs, it was reported

The purchase follows AB-InBev’s acquisition of craft brewers outside the US, including Italy’s Birra del Borgo (2016), London’s Camden Town Brewery (2015), Colombia’s Bogota Beer (2015) as well as Brazil’s Colorado and Wäls (2015).

Not to be outdone, a few days later Molson Coors announced it had bought a majority stake in Cervezas La Sagra, based in Toledo, which was also set up in 2011 and brewed some 4,000 hl beer in 2016.

While AB-InBev took over La Virgen outright, as it tends to, Molson Coors stuck to its own policy of only buying a stake.

Spain’s beer industry is dominated by Mahou, Heineken and Estrella Damm, with Mahou narrowly leading over Heineken. Beer consumption was 37 million hl in 2015, up 2.5 percent, with per capita consumption reaching 82 litres. Local craft brewers had a market share of less than 1 percent.