SABMiller buys craft brewer Meantime

How mean. UK media quipped that the world's number two brewer has got “crafty” with the acquisition of London-based brewery Meantime. Meantime was established by brewmaster Alastair Hook in 1999 when he built a brewery in Greenwich, London. The business has since created a successful range of British and international beer styles. Last year, Meantime reportedly increased its beer sales by 58 percent to reach over 60,000 hl, outpacing the UK beer market’s 1 percent growth.

SABMiller, which does not have a brewery in the UK, said the acquisition gave it “an entry point into the fastest-growing segment of the UK beer market” and would complement its Peroni and Pilsner Urquell offerings.

The international brewer also said that it planned to expand Meantime's UK sales and export its beers to European markets.

Meantime’s existing management team, headed by CEO Nick Miller and Mr Hook, will continue to run the business. Mr Miller worked for SABMiller before becoming CEO of Meantime in 2011.

Meantime made a pre-tax profit of GBP 571,644 on GBP 11.5 million sales in 2013, UK media reported. Following the transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed, Meantime will open a pilot brewery which will become a centre for SABMiller’s European innovation and new product development.

Irrespective of craft beer’s overall share of the UK beer market (is it 2 percent, 10 percent or maybe 20 percent of the market?), it has been one of the market’s bright spots in recent years. This should not have escaped SABMiller. By acquiring Meantime it is merely following in the steps of Molson Coors, which is the UK’s second largest brewer behind Heineken.

In the UK Molson Coors already has a craft beer portfolio, having purchased Sharp’s Brewery in Cornwall in 2011 and Irish brewer Franciscan Well in 2013. Molson Coors also launched the William Worthington microbrewery in 2010.