Interbrew sells Rostock Brewery to Brau + Brunnen

At the end of November, Interbrew announced the sale of Rostock Brewery to Germany’s troubled beer concern Brau + Brunnen. Rostock Brewery, located near the Baltic coast of former Eastern Germany, which employs 120 people and brews 400 000 hl of beer annually, had come to Interbrew as part and parcel of Beck’s. However, its brands (Rostocker, Freibeuter and Roter Oktober) never fitted into Interbrew’s brand portfolio. No mention of the price was made. Brau + Brunnen claimed that Rostock Brewery allowed it to increase its presence in Northern Germany. The deal will only come into effect once regulatory approval has been given.
With the sale of Rostock Brewery, Interbrew has completed its divestment of non-core businesses in Germany..

Do good but keep shtoom

Krombacher, Germany’s top brewer, got slapped on the wrists by German judges for having disobeyed the rules of emotional advertising. The case in question was Krombacher’s May-to-July 2002-campaign to contribute a percentage of the sale of each crate of beer towards the protection of the African rain forest. The judges argued that Krombacher’s advertising had not made clear what was the connection between the purchase of a crate of beer and environmentalism. The campaign had been supported by the WWF. Consumer watchdogs criticised the campaign for putting consumers under psychological pressure and took Krombacher to court. Krombacher, however, has announced that it would continue the campaign albeit in a modified version.

Deposit on cans

In an effort to stem the tide of non-returnable beverage containers, the German government has introduced a compulsory deposit on beer, mineral water and soft drink cans. The deposit is a consequence of German packaging regulations which are in favour of refillable bottles and which read that the quota of returnable containers must not drop below 72 percent. Unfortunately, it has. By April 2001 it had dropped to 64,81 percent. The compulsory deposit is to come into effect on 1 January 2003. 25 cents per can will be charged. The deposit has been met with massive resistance from the retailers, especially the large discount chains, that have for a long time supported non-returnable beverage containers..

Wet on the inside

Zenith International’s market analysts may not have got their geopolitics right (there is central (!) and eastern (!) Europe and not just East (!) Europe), but their figures indicate a trend towards a growth in bottled water consumption. Bottled water sales in central and eastern Europe have seen double digit growth in each of the past five years, reaching more than 6,300 million litres in 2001. Despite the economic difficulties experienced by the region in the late 1990s, volume has jumped by almost 90 percent since 1996.
Consumption has nearly doubled from 10 litres per person in 1996 to just short of 20 litres per person in 2001, but remains a long way behind the west European average which is set to pass 100 litres per person in 2002..

Take three

First they took Diebels, then Beck’s. Guess who came next? The Gilde Brewery in Hannover, which will be bought by Belgium’s Interbrew following regulatory approval. Gilde which produces the brands Hasseröder, Gilde and Wolters is one of Germany’s top 5 brewers with an output of 4.4 million hl of beer, a turnover of EUR306 million, profits of 20 million (in 2001) and 900 employees. The sale of Gilde bears certain analogies to the sale of Beck’s which stunned the nation a year ago: about 200 shareholders with no direct involvement in the brewer were made an offer they could not refuse. In the case of Beck’s, shareholders on average had an 1.5 percent interest in the brewer, in the case of Gilde, the average stake was even smaller. All that seems to have been the case..

Radeberger to sell stake in Schwechat Brewery

In a move to disentangle itself from investments which might stand in the way of a sale, Germany’s second largest brewer, Radeberger Gruppe AG, the re-named Binding AG and majority owned by Germany’s food group Oetker, has sold its 10.6 percent strategic stake in Austrian brewer Schwechat AG. The shares were sold as a package to Schwechat’s majority shareholder, the Hopfen & Malz Holding AG. In a similar move, the Oetker Group sold its 16.6 percent stake in Schwechat. Both transactions are to come into effect in 2002. No mention was made of the value of the transactions. Radeberger AG announced that the proceeds from the sale will go towards increasing its market share in Germany..

KGB for cheaper beer

Thank heavens, they ain’t the KGB. They are only beer lovers who got together earlier this year to found the Campaign for Good Beer (KGB), Austria’s equivalent to CAMRA, the UK’s Campaign for Real Ale. Prior to the General Elections held in November, the KGB launched a campaign to reduce the excise on beer to nil. The campaigners argued that it was grossly unfair that excise was levied on beer but not on wine. In good Austrian plain-speaking fashion, politicians have always maintained that the only reason excise was claimed on beer was that it was easier to collect than any form of excise on wine. The campaigners held that argument against them, saying that if this was the only reason for the tax’s existence, the tax had to go. And the sooner the better. The ÖVP won the elections..

Hit by floods

"Water, water, everywhere but lots of beer to drink" goes the rhyme... well almost. The August wave of flooding that swept through the Czech Republic didn’t spare the brewing sector. Six of the nation’s brewers, including the country’s top three breweries - SABMiller’s Pilsner Urquell, Interbrew’s Prague Breweries, and Budweiser-Budvar - were directly hit by the flood water, writes Lyle Frink from Prague.
At the top of the damage list was the small Eggenberg brewery in the southern Bohemian town of Cesky Krumlov. Located in the town’s gothic centre, the brewery was completely flooded. "The cellars, the technology, everything was under two metres of water," said board chairman Jiri Shrbeny. "We are still working on renovating the technology." The damage bill is estimated at EUR6....

Focus on new plants: Ringnes Brewery, Oslo Overall plant automation

When relocating its brewery plant, Ringnes took the opportunity to automate the overall brewing process completely. Within a very short space of time, a new system has been installed which replaced the former stand-alone solutions and provided reliable data exchange between individual plant units.

The Norwegian beer market is small but geared towards the discerning customer. 2.2 million hl of beer are produced annually, beer consumption is 51 l per capita, the lowest in Europe. Ringnes, with a market share of about 60%, is one of the leading producers of beer, water and soft drinks. Eight beer types are brewed in several domestic brewery plants. Ringnes, Lysholmer and Munkholm are the three top brands.g. was equipped with a new milling plant of the Millstar type and a lauter tun.

Open marriage

Heineken and Whitbread confirmed that the licensing agreement to brew, market and distribute two Heineken brands in the UK will come to an end when the contract expires in 2003. Heineken will then assume control of the marketing and distribution of its brand in the UK.
Following the sale of Whitbread to Interbrew in May 2000, Whitbread retained the licence to brew, market and distribute Heineken in the UK and arrangements were put in place whereby Interbrew UK became the distributor of Heineken Cold Filtered (3.4% ABV) and Heineken Export (5% ABV) in the UK. Throughout 2002 and 2003 until the contract expires, Interbrew will spend GBP14 million on marketing the brands. Far from it. Interbrew plans to put a GBP5 million marketing programme behind the brand..