Budweiser meets the budget, drives a car, kicks a ball

A growing state budget deficit in the Czech Republic has the Social Democrat government looking for funds anywhere they can - including the sale of the state-owned Budweiser-Budvar brewery, writes Lyle Frink from Prague. Faced with a public sector defici

Board reshuffle

According to Belgian media, it was to be expected that Luc Missorten, Interbrew's Chief Financial Officer would leave the company " to pursue business opportunities outside the company." After 13 years with Interbrew he was apparently held responsible for

Focus on new plants: Hartwall, Lahti/Finland. Modern highly flexible filling centre for soft drinks

With an overall investment of some 225 million Euro, a mega project is currently under construction in Lahti for the leading Finnish Hartwall brewing group. It is still a building site. A part is already in operation: the high-bay warehouse, links with

Polish big player with great ambitions. SABMiller’s subsidiary Kompania Piwowarska on the road to success

It was one of the great moments in the history of the brewing trade when the Miller Brewing Company, a Philip Morris subsidiary, merged with South African Breweries plc to become SABMiller plc. On the one hand, South African Breweries plc, the world’s fourth largest brewing company to date and the Miller Brewing Company, the second biggest brewery in the United States on the other. With a total volume of 120 million hectoliters, new brewing giant SABMiller now ranks second following Anheuser-Busch among the players in the world’s beer market. SABMiller has 111 breweries in 24 countries and a workforce of over 37,500 employees.

In light of truly impressive global figures, attention is frequently diverted from local market developments.5 percent. With sales totaling 5.

Gillette man

Please let us introduce you to the gallery of executive types: there is Teflon Man (with whom nothing sticks) and there are Suits (indescribably boring). But here comes Gillette Man. Nomen est omen. Incidentally, Scottish & Newcastle’s new Chief Executive Officer, Tony Froggatt, 54, once worked for The Gillette Company. So he should know which tasks lie ahead of him. Having been with Cinzano, IDV, and most recently with the Seagram group where he was Executive President for Europe, Middle East & Africa, Mr Froggatt has wide experiences in the global drinks industry. Sir Brian Stewart, who was appointed Chief Executive in 1991 and has been Executive Chairman since 2000, has handed over executive responsibilities to Tony Froggatt, and will become non-executive Chairman from 1 July 2003.

Do the right thing

For more than a year, the City has tried to persuade (and believe us, there are ways and ways of persuasion) Scottish & Newcastle to give up being vertically integrated and sell its last 1,450 pubs. Now that it has done as told, put all its pubs up for auction and bought the troubled cider maker HP Bulmer for £278 million including net debt of £91 million, the hard-nosed bankers feigned surprise. Ah well. It’s done. What makes the rest of the world sit up now is whether some City’s pundits will be proven right and S&N will indeed become a target for a bid from Anheuser-Busch (A-B) or SABMiller.
But first things first. The auction of S&N’s pub estate. Analysts have insisted for a long time that S&N could only maximise shareholder value if it sold all of its pubs.3 billion..

Rouble trouble

Unfortunately, you have to be a rocket scientist to work out Scottish & Newcastle’s piece of financial maths: Commenting on BBH’s first quarter 2003 results, S&N argues: For the period the rouble depreciated by 3% against the US dollar (against the same period in 2002) and by 20% against the euro during the same period. Due to these variations overall sales increased by 4% in dollar terms and fell by 15% in euros.
Sales during the first quarter fell 15% to EUR216 million, EBITDA plummeted even lower (-37%) to EUR50 million while the operating profit nosedived (-51%) to EUR29 million. However, there is an explanation for all this. According to S&N, the first quarter, due to the winter weather, was always the low season for beer sales throughout BBH’s areas of operation. How true.5%..

All under one roof

In May 2003, Scottish & Newcastle plc (S&N) confirmed the acquisition of the full control of Sociedade Central de Cervejas (Centralcer), the Portuguese brewer and distributor. S&N had entered the Portuguese market in 2000, buying a 49% stake in the holding Centralcontrol, which controlled 100% of Centralcer, Portugal’s second largest brewer. The remaining 51% stake was held by VTR SGPS SA, a holding company for the interests of Banco Espirito Santo, Parfil, Fundaçao Bissaya Barreto, Olinveste and STDP. The total net cash consideration that will be payable on completion by S&N for these transactions is EUR342 million. S&N will also consolidate approximately EUR 157 million of debt relating to the two businesses (although EUR70 million of this relates to S&N’s existing 49% investment).2% p..

Peroni sold to SABMiller

And another one’s gone. Talk about Italian brewers of some size and distinction and you’ll have to resort to the singular now that Peroni has been sold to SABMiller. The only remaining Italian brewer is the family-owned Forst brewery, located near Bolzano in the far north of Italy.
Why Peroni was put up for sale, your guess is as good as ours. Some might suggest changes in market structure. After all, Heineken managed to capture the market leadership from Peroni with the result that in 2002 Peroni had a beer output of 4.4 million hl and a market share of 25% while Heineken Italia controlled 35% of the market. Just think of it, all of this happened against a backdrop of rising beer consumption (17 m hl in 2002; 29 l per capita).6 times EBITDA in 2002.8 million..

The final plagues

Oh dear. Why did not somebody warn them of the power of symbolism. In its first quarter 2003 statement, Carlsberg gives seven reasons for its underperformance that one can’t help thinking of the end of the world, or rather how the seven angels having the seven last plagues bring about the end of the world in the Book of Revelation.
For the first quarter 2003 Carlsberg reported an EBITA (operating profit) of DKK 18 million versus DKK 440 million in 2002. Sales were also below
expectations: the Danish brewer announced sales of DKK6,855 million against DKK7,572 million in the previous year. In Western Europe, Q1 EBITA was DKK157 million below last year (Q1 2002: DKK139 million) on sales down 6% to DKK5.3 billion.3bn.
Some things must have gone quite wrong for Carlsberg..