More job cuts

Soon they will have to put out the “office space for rent” signs. If InBev is going to push ahead with further restructuring programmes at its glitzy and spanking new Leuven headquarters, they might have to start looking around for new tenants. Having already outsourced the IT department, InBev announced in October that an “effectiveness study” of structures and processes in its global headquarters recommends further job reductions. In best management speak, “the proposed organization aims to create clear responsibilities and to eliminate overlapping or duplicated processes and activities across functions, as well as across Zones and GHQ, taking into account the right match of employee profiles with the new organizational requirements..

Who’s afraid of the WHO?

German brewers have at last woken up to the fact that the World Health Organisation’s plan to reduce the worldwide consumption of alcohol by 20 percent over the next ten years might also pose a threat to their business. Although many of them must have been aware that dark clouds were gathering over their heads, attempts to reduce alcohol abuse so far have been scarce and few in between – at least if compared with what brewers in other countries have done so far. ...

More Faliraki than Florence

It’s a time for Menetekels, Armageddons and other disasters of Biblical proportions. With the change in licensing laws only weeks away – they will change on 24 November – concerned citizens, pressure groups and even the police have voiced their objections to the new pub law with alarmist headlines. According to an internal Scotland Yard report, violent crime including murder and rape will soar when the government’s liberalised drinking laws come into effect. A representative of Alcohol Concern, an anti-alcohol lobbying group, reportedly said that extended drinking hours were more likely to turn town centres into “Faliraki than Florence”. By all accounts, British tourists seem to be interested in two things only: getting drunk and getting laid. Not necessarily in that order, though. ....

Of bulls, bears and golden calves

It’s become a hotly debated issue. How do you read a balance sheet these days? From top to bottom or from the bottom to the top? Delegates at the 4th World Beer & Drinks Forum, which was held in Munich in September, were treated to a piece of new times thinking by John Brock, the CEO of InBev, who told them that “(beer) volumes were broadly irrelevant” today. Instead it was EBITDA, EBITDA, EBITDA – and a bottom to top reading of InBev’s balance sheet. Wolfgang Salewski, the chief of Germany’s Brau Holding International (the JV between Heineken and Germany’s real estate and hotels entrepreneur Stefan Schörghuber in which Heineken has a 49.9 percent stake) was visibly outraged by this and retorted that if you do a proper job, the bottom line would somehow fall into place. ....

The return of the Jedi

Worse still, western European markets represent 70 percent of Carlsberg’s sales and 60 percent of profits. 30 percent of its profits Carlsberg realises in eastern Europe and 10 percent in Asia. Therefore the continuing downward trend of Carlsberg’s EBITA from DKK 3.8 billion in 2002 to DKK 3.4 billion (EUR 456 million) last year must have worried management and investors alike - albeit for different reasons. It’s only thanks to its protective ownership structure that Carlsberg has never been considered a serious takeover candidate.

Emergency measures

What a PR blunder: On 27 September Carlsberg, the world’s fifth largest brewer, announced that it would close 14 of its 29 breweries in nine European countries as part of yet another cost saving plan called a “programme of excellence”. That’s a good example of contemporary business Newspeak if ever there was one. Interestingly, no details were released as to which brewery would be singled out for closure, how many jobs would have to go, or when it was all going to happen. A Carlsberg spokesperson said that the company would decide which plants to shut down during the next three years. Carlsberg’s CEO Nils Andersen was quoted as saying that a brewery in Copenhagen (which one could that possibly be?) was likely not to exist any longer in six years’ time. Danish consumers all but rioted. ....

Chainsaws and other clues

Forget crosswords - for groovy middle youth types who grew up on Hollywood fare, the Stella Artois film ads, which have been appearing in British magazines throughout July this year, have become a real craze. Three ads with allusions to 20 movies each, depict a familiar scene of the English outdoors: a park (sic), a town, a beach. Yet, these pictures are far from what they seem. They are a carefully crafted visual pun which even hardened film buffs find hard to crack. ..

Media partnership between VLB and Fachverlag Hans Carl

Brauwelt International No. 4, 2005 sees the launch of the media partnership between VLB Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin (Testing and Teaching Institute for Breweries in Berlin) and Fachverlag Hans Carl. This co-operation will benefit both parties.
Both partners are in tune with the times in terms of a greater emphasis on internationalisation and globalisation. Fachverlag Hans Carl pre-empted developments already 23 years ago when Brauwelt International in English was launched. Thus, the Fachverlag was the first German publisher in the beverage sector to bring out an international edition, together with a German edition. ...

Society for Hop research, Wolnzach-Hüll - World beermarket 2004

In the context of the 79th AGM of the Association for Hop Research, Chairman Georg Balk gave an overview of the world beer market. In 2004, world beer production rose by some 3 % to 1.545 billion hl. That represents a doubling since 1970 or a 10.8% increase, the equivalent of 150 million hl, since 2000. Whereas Australia/New Zealand as well as America (North, Central and South) were practically stagnant, Europe has added almost 10 %, i.e. 46 million hl, since 2000 and Asia has gone up by 86 million hl or almost 33 %. ..

Strengthening the Pepsi link

As Heineken and SABMiller have the Polish beer market well under their control, InBev has had to find itself another bedfellow. This summer InBv announced that it had entered into a partnership with PepsiAmericas, Inc. to sell and distribute Beck’s in Poland. Poland, which joined the European Union in May 2004, has a population of more than 38 million people. Obviously, the Polish beer market is an attractive one for InBev with annual beer consumption in excess of 30 million hl and a growth rate of 4 percent, according to Canadean. The beer category in Poland is expected to continue to grow with consumers increasingly trading up to higher quality premium beers. ...