New Glarus Brewing invests in a 120,000 hl brewery

Having fallen in love with micro beers, Deborah and Dan Carey established the New Glarus Brewing Company in the tiny village of New Glarus (2,000 inhabitants) in southern Wisconsin in 1993. This makes Deborah one of the first women in the U.S. to found and manage a brewery. As with other ‘professional’ couples, Deborah is responsible for the marketing of the beers, while Dan takes care of their production.

Desperately seeking the next Corona

Although it takes a big stretch of the imagination to see Colombia’s beer brand Aguila as the next Corona Extra, Miller Brewing has decided to import three Latin American beer brands from its parent company SABMiller as of January 2007 and expand the distribution of another beer from Poland.

Coca-Cola and Nestlé jointly launch a fat-burning beverage

How does it work? Apparently, Enviga invigorates your metabolism to gently burn calories. However, there is a catch. The Coca-Cola Company says that you will have to drink three cans of Enviga per day to experience an average increase in calorie burning by 60 – 100 calories. And you have to be a healthy person in the lean to normal weight range to enjoy that benefit.

August Busch IV reaches top spot at Anheuser-Busch

Analysts immediately called the buyout highly unlikely – because it would not make much sense - which knocked shares back a bit, though the stock managed to continue gaining in value for the remainder of the week.

InBev sells three beer brands and a brewery to Inversora Cervecera

It has taken the Argentine brewer Quilmes (wholly owned by Brazil’s AmBev) more than three years to comply with the Argentine antitrust authority’s ruling following the merger of Quinsa and Brazil’s AmBev in 2003.

Combating a stagnant market

The good news: Heineken Premium Light, which was introduced into the U.S. in March supported by 50 million USD (42 million EUR) incremental marketing budget, is likely to exceed its initial target of 400,000 hl of beer. The bad news: Heineken Premium Light, which controls just 0.5 percent of the U.S. lite market, could be cannibalizing Heineken’s Amstel Light, whose volume has slipped 6 percent this year according to industry sources.

Courage and faith

It takes a former emerging markets’ brewer like SABMiller to invest 175 million USD in the construction of a new brewery in one of the most instable countries of the world. In August SABMiller announced that its Colombian subsidiary Bavaria will build a new brewery in Yumbo, on the outskirts of Cali in western Colombia, to keep pace with growing demand in the region.

Sleeman sold to Sapporo

The last of Canada’s big brewers to fall into foreign hands, Sleeman agreed to sell its shares to Sapporo Holdings Inc, a unit Sapporo Breweries Ltd, for some 400 million CAD. The consideration includes Sapporo’s assumption of the Canadian beer maker’s debts.

Wine in PET

In August, Wolf Blass Wines, which is owned by the Foster’s Group, announced the launch of Bilyara Reserve, a new range of premium Australian wines in lightweight, shatterproof and environmentally friendly 750 ml PET bottles. This is probably the first time a wine company has attempted to put a premium wine and not just plonk into plastic bottles.

With many Latin American countries enjoying an economic recovery, the synergies from the alliance of operations between Quinsa and AmBev (part of InBev) have become apparent from Quinsa’s latest financial reports. Most recently, AmBev increased its ownership of Quinsa to 91 percent, an acquisition involving about USD 1.2 billion, and now effectively controls the company. Analysts at the investment bank Zacks believe that, ultimately, public shareholders will be bought out.