Bud ahoi

Maltese brewer Farsons has signed a bottling and distribution agreement with Anheuser-Busch for the Maltese market which is to run for five years. UK-brewed Budweiser will be shipped to Malta in temperature-controlled tankers and transferred into the Farsons beer storage tanks upon arrival at the Mriehel brewery.

For he’s a jolly Goodfella

Heineken has launched a new GBP5.5 million advertising campaign featuring Ray Liotta, star of Martin Scorsese’s mobster film Goodfellas, in a bid to revive falling sales following its decision to scrap its Cold-Filtered standard strength lager last year and replace it with the regular Heineken brand.
According to industry sources, sales volumes are currently at around a fifth of previous highs, after the group ditched its standard strength 3.4% ABV drink to bring the UK in line with the other 170 countries where the beer is sold. All Heineken sold in the UK will now be the premium-strength lager with an ABV of 5%.
The new adverts are designed to alert the public to the change in Heineken and refresh the image of the brand..

Things you’ve always wanted...

...such as ale in cartons. Beer drinkers in the UK will soon be able to spill their drinks all down their front as they try to rip open Tetra Pak cartons full of real ale, reports Martin information, London, with a certain amount of glee. Old Kent Inns is set to release its Dog & Duck Best onto the market in 330ml cartons, specially designed for outdoor events. John Bridgen, the company’s Managing Director, reportedly said that the carton was perfect with many city councils banning glassware, plus cheaper to transport and easy to recycle. Obviously, ale is better suited to carton packaging than lager because carton cannot take the pressure of lager. However, a number of off-trade retailers have expressed doubts about the suitability of the packaging..

Spring cleaning

Diageo has announced the closure of its Park Royal Brewery (built in 1936) in London and the transfer of production to its St James’ Gate Brewery in Dublin. This signals the withdrawal of locally produced Guinness from the UK. To cope with the extra two million hl of output, Guinness will invest GBP15 million in the St James’ Gate site to expand its capacity to six million hl. The Park Royal brewery will close in summer 2005 and 90 jobs will be lost. Materially speaking, the proceeds from selling the land to a property developer will probably more than cover the costs of closure and the investment in Dublin. Guinness’ UK beer volumes fell three percent in the second half of 2003 and seven percent in Ireland.....

Smoke got in their eyes

Sweden has become the third country in Europe to ban smoking in bars, cafes and restaurants. The Swedish Parliament voted in favour of a government proposal to ban smoking in bars and restaurants starting on 1 June 2005. Overriding protests from the Swedish hotel and restaurant association, lawmakers approved the ban by 245 votes to 45. Neighbouring Norway’s smoking ban took effect on 1 June this year. Welcome to Norway. The only thing we smoke here is salmon,’’ read posters issued by the government a week before it banned all smoking in public places, including bars, restaurants and discos. Since Parliament adopted the no-smoking law in May 2003, many people have stopped smoking....

White nights turn golden

According to research by St. Petersburg’s Gortis market research company, consumption of beer in St. Petersburg has increased to 80 litres per capita in 2002 from 31.5 litres per person aged 15 years and older in 1997. However, the percentage of locals who drink beer has not changed over the past six years. It’s still only 50 percent of the population that drink beer, which brings de-facto beer consumption to rather high levels. Locals also vary in their brand preferences thanks to the launch of new beer brands. Baltika Brewery (BBH) lost its leading position with figures falling from 40 percent in 1997 to 23 percent last year according to Gortis. Stepan Razin had 20 percent of the local market, a decline from 37 percent in 1999..

Seen the light

There’s only one way for SABMiller to narrow the gap to Romania’s leading brewer Heineken and that is: buy market share. SABMiller announced that it has bought Romanian brewing company Aurora S.A. ("Aurora"), which will raise its market share to 20 percent. The acquisition is conditional upon Romanian Competition Council approval and the fulfilment of certain technical requirements.
Aurora has one brewery (cap. 680,000 hl) which is located in the city of Brasov in central Romania. Although Aurora has national market share of 5.2 percent, its brands have a predominantly regional presence. The Romanian beer market grew 12 percent to 12.8 million hl in 2003. Aurora’s beer sales in 2003 were 659,000 hl. SABMiller said that the value of the net assets is approximately USD16.0 times..

All going according to plan...

...even if it means: lower net profit for the full year before amortisation of goodwill. Heineken’s Chief Financial Officer Rene Hooft Graafland told the media that net profit would fall due to the effect of a weak dollar while Heineken would also start amortising goodwill.
Analysts expect a net profit in 2004 of around EUR780 million, rising to EUR825 million in 2005 and EUR900 million in 2006 on sales of EUR10.2 billion in 2004, EUR10.6 billion in 2005 and EUR10.8 billion in 2006.
Heineken, which reported flat 2003 profits of EUR798 million, warned in February that the weak dollar would take EUR85 million out of 2004 earnings, despite organic growth.
The CFO forecast Heineken’s total net debt would rise to EUR3.0 billion at the end 2004 from EUR2..

No drink for Michael Power

Remember Michael Power, Guinness’ African advertising icon (Brauwelt passim)? Under Ireland’s proposed new advertising code for the drinks industry, which will seek to ensure that alcohol is marketed and sold in a socially responsible way, he will be a "no-no" unless he goes for a name change. Power and what it alludes to have become taboo. Under the terms of the Code of Practice for "Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society" (Meas), reports Martin Information, London, drinks companies will be monitored to ensure their advertising does not claim that their products create sexual prowess or sporting success....

Drink - the new tobacco?

The government stepped back from compulsion in its war on binge-drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence, but made it clear that harsher rules would be bought in if co-operation did not work. According to Martin Information, London, strategic leaks prior to the publication of the government’s alcohol action plan suggested that some members of the government thought that the plan was not far-reaching enough and demanded powers such as the right to fix the prices of alcoholic drinks in city centres and a compulsory annual levy on pubs and clubs of an average GBP10 000 a year each to pay for extra police officers....