Midsummer merrymaking

Just as well summer came early in Finland this year. For the first six months of 2005, growth in all beverage categories was up 0.2 percent on the same period last year. Sales of beer rose by 2.9 percent during the half-year period, while sales of other beverages fell slightly. Thanks to the beautiful weather in June, sales of mineral water and long drinks also saw strong growth. By the end of June, the members of the Finnish Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry had sold a total of 2.1 million hl of beer, representing growth of 590,000 hl, or 2.9 per cent on the previous year. Sales of beer were boosted by discounts. Large supermarkets in particular tried to attract customers with beer promotions for the May Day and Midsummer celebrations. ..

Just fancy that

In July this year Finland was the first European country to introduce the breath alcohol ignition interlock device, or "alcolock" for short, a gadget that requires a repeat drink-driving offender to blow into a breath analyser to switch on a car’s ignition circuit.
For the time being, having an alcolock fitted is a voluntary option to an unconditional driving ban imposed on a drink driver. Further, those convicted of drink-driving will have to agree to an intoxicant addiction assessment programme as well as well as follow-up checks.
The costs, around EUR 150 per month, are to be incurred by the driver.
In neighbouring Sweden, it was proposed that all new cars will have to have an alcolock on board by 2012. Lorries and buses will have the alcolocks before 2012..

Not bad for a rainy summer

For the fiscal year ending 31 March 2005, Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s., the Czech unit of SABMiller, reported that revenue was up 4 percent to CZK 13.1 billion, operating profit up 14.5 percent to CZK 4.17 billion, and net profit up to CZK 2.96 billion despite the cool weather during the summer of 2004.
With a local market share touching 50 percent, Prazdroj is increasingly looking for expansion abroad. According to company news, Prazdroj sold 9.7 million hl of beer during fiscal 2005, up 200,000 hl against the previous year. Exports, up 13 percent, were 1.7 million hl of this. Accession to the EU, with the removal of border tariffs, was a help in this growth. Virtual exports - licensed production - in Slovakia, Poland, and Russia passed the one million hl mark. ...

Hammering it out

Drinks Union opened its first "Zlatá kovadlina" ("Golden Anvil") restaurant in Prague on 11 July 2005, putting its franchise pub concept into the nation’s capital, writes Lyle Frink from Prague. Featuring an anvil shaped tap, stylised chairs, and an assortment of other memorabilia from the era of the blacksmith, Drinks Union is hoping that consumers can make a connection to their past. "We wanted to emphasise that the blacksmith’s was always a centre for society in a village, and that Zlatopramen also has its traditions," said Drinks Union marketing manager Boris Rajdl.
The menu is designed to strengthen the connection between food and beer. "Beer is part of the whole food package," said Rajdl. "This is not for the lads, it’s for those want a drink in a nice environment," said Rajdl..

Biggest to best

In an effort to tidy up its house and cut costs, InBev has recently announced its intention to outsource its information technology infrastructure to IBM and BT. Never tardy, it has also sold its stakes in Spain’s brewer Damm and in Germany’s soft drinks bottler Bremer Erfrischungsgetränke and embarked on a share buy-back programme for up to EUR 300 million. The share buy-back programme is scheduled to run for twelve months and may be renewed thereafter. InBev’s Board of Directors has also decided to increase the economic ownership of InBev in AmBev over the same period through the purchase of AmBev’s preferred shares for an amount of up to EUR 500 million. ..

From Brussels - with love

That Interbrew UK is to revive Artois Bock, the predecessor to Stella Artois, which Interbrew’s forerunner Artois stopped brewing in the 1950s, may go down well with British consumers. But its efforts to introduce a wider variety of glasses and measures could backfire unless Interbrew decides to stick to Imperial measures and not the detested Metric ones. First things first. Artois Bock (6.2 % ABV) will initially be available in the UK and Belgium, and will be backed by a GBP 2 million advertising campaign in the summer. ..

You’d better score

No more Carlsberg on Liverpool football shirts? Initially, reports in the British media seemed to indicate that Carlsberg wanted to end its GBP 6 million a-year (EUR 8.7 million) sponsorship deal with Liverpool FC this summer after 12 seasons, as Liverpool had failed to win any major football trophies such as the Premiership. However, when Liverpool beat Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final in May, Carlsberg must have felt assured that the club’s profile would remain high, especially when Liverpool went on to score against AC Milan to become European champions. In the end, Carlsberg has extended its shirt sponsorship deal with Liverpool Football Club for another two years.

Booze Britain

In the 1990s the British Prime Minister Tony Blair touted ‘Cool Britannia’. A few years on it seems that Cool Britannia has lost out to ‘Booze Britain’. If media reports are to be believed, Britain is becoming a nation of heavy drinkers: Not only lager louts or Saturday night bingers all of Britain appears to be ‘under the influence’. For months, the British press has carried gruesome stories about city centres turning into war zones at night where drunken violence escalates and the police marches through in paramilitary assault gear to herd the drunks out of town before the doors of bars spill open. ..

Mine - but not quite yet

The bid by Pernod Ricard for Britain’s Allied Domecq, which could shake up the spirits industry world-wide, has run into difficulties amid rumours that there might be a counterbid in the offing. That’s why the Takeover Panel in the UK has set 29 June 2005 as the deadline for a consortium headed by Constellation Brands of the U.S. to make a rival offer for Allied Domecq or forever hold their peace. The announcement came as Allied confirmed it would hold a shareholders’ meeting on 4 July to approve its agreed GBP 7.5 billion takeover by Pernod Ricard unless a counterbid emerges. ..

It’s mine!

Beck’s former owners must have bargained well. Shortly before they sold Beck’s to Interbrew they renewed the exclusive distribution rights for Beck’s in the UK with S&N. This contract was to expire in 2012. The UK, where approximately 600,000 hl of Beck’s were sold in 2004, is one of Beck’s major export markets. The other two are Italy and the United States. In May InBev announced that it has reached an agreement with S&N to get back the distribution rights for Beck’s in the UK as of 2006 for a price or net present value of EUR 97.7 million. According to reports in the British press, S&N will pay the money in annual instalments until the end of the original licence period in 2012.