At the end of September, Anheuser-Busch rolled out its new low-carbohydrate beer, Michelob ULTRA. The brewer claims that the new beer is low in carbohydrates. A 12-ounce bottle of ULTRA has 2.6 g of carbohydrates, compared with 6.6 g for Bud light. They contain the same amount of alcohol, though - 4.2 % ABV. The brand was test-marketed in Denver, Tucson, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Florida. Michelob ULTRA is the most recent addition to the Michelob family of beer which now consists of 10 brands. In 2000, Michelob Light was the 13th most popular beer brand in the US, Michelob ranked 19th. Unlike Budweiser and Bud Light, which are both premium brands, the Michelob brands are positioned in the super-premium segment.

Guinness Bass Import Company (GBIC), Diageo’s importing and marketing arm, will relinquish its 1998 US importation and distribution rights for Bass Ale. The rights will pass to Interbrew, Bass’ new parent, on 30 June 2003 for a sum of USD105 million. Under the 1998 agreement, GBIC had the right to sell and market the brand in the US until July 2016. In the US, Bass Ale is considered a super premium brand and during fiscal 2001, GBIC sold around 7.5 million cases (600,000 hl).

Heineken’s recent shopping spree bears certainly analogies to London busses: First there are none for hours and then 20 come along at once. So if this issue’s news section reads like Heineken’s shopping list - we are only fulfilling our duty as chroniclers.

At the beginning of July, SAB’s shareholders approved of the US$5.6 billion deal to buy Miller Brewing Company which was announced on 30 May 2002 ending months of rumour and speculation. The deal called for London-listed SAB to pay US$3.6 billion in shares to cigarette maker Philip Morris, the parent of Miller Brewing Co., and take on US$2 billion of debt. Philip Morris retains a 36 per cent interest in the brewer, which is called SABMiller Plc. In a regulatory filing, Philip Morris, the world’s No. 1 tobacco company, said it would be entitled to a break-up fee of US$160 million if SAB did not obtain shareholder approval for the deal by 8 July 2002, or if the transaction were not completed by 31 July 2003.

Want to ring home? No problem. Since 10 July 2002, Labatt Breweries has been offering a new service providing people of legal drinking age in select cities across Ontario with free, unlimited long-distance telephone calls. The service is called Labatt Blueline and is supposed to run throughout the summer. According to a corporate statement, Labatt has teamed up with Onlinetel Corp. Theirs is an Internet-based, phone-to-phone technology, which enables the majority of Ontario residents to call their friends in select towns and cities across the province for free, at any time of the day, for as long as they want, as often as they want. The service can be accessed from both cell phones and touch-tone land-line phones. Users can register for a personal PIN code at www.labattblueline.com.

Following the joint deal between Diageo and Pernod Ricard to buy Seagram Spirits and Wines in December 2000, Guinness UDV Canada, a division of Diageo, ended up with more bottling plants than it needed. A bottling plant in west Toronto is to go early next year with the loss of 55 jobs and another bottling operation in LaSalle, Quebec, will be shut down late 2003 or early 2004 with the loss of 210 jobs. Guinness will keep four plants open with a total sales and manufacturing staff of about 1,000 people.

When Molson reported its profit expectations for 2002 some months ago, the cost cutting programme did not say "close three Brazilian plants!" But this is what the Montreal-based brewer intends to do. In March 2002, Molson paid US$765 million for Brazil’s second largest brewer Kaiser and combined it with its existing Brazilian operation, Bavaria. Now Kaiser is going to shut down the breweries at Getulio Vargas, Camacari and Divin- opolis and change its Ribeirao Preto plant to produce cans. Irrespective of concern over Brazil’s currency instability, the market believes that the situation will not have a serious impact on Molson’s operations.

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., the world’s largest brewer, at the end of April sold $250 million of 40-year bonds, said joint book/lead manager Bank of America Securities LLC on Monday. Salomon Smith Barney was the other joint book/lead manager for the sale.

Standard & Poor’s announced that it assigned its triple-"B"-plus rating to brewer Coors Brewing Company’s US$ 750 million senior notes due 2012. Proceeds of the offering will be used to refinance an existing $750 million senior unsecured bridge facility. The notes are guaranteed by parent, Adolph Coors Co. (Coors) and by certain subsidiaries of Coors. At the same time, Standard & Poor’s affirmed its triple-"B"-plus corporate credit rating for Coors.
The outlook is negative. About US$1.67 billion of total debt was outstanding at Coors on 31 December 2001, pro forma for Coors’ acquisition of
the UK-based Carling business that closed in February 2002.
The rating outlook is stable. The ratings reflect Coors position as the third-largest brewer in the U.S.S..

According to the Institute for Brewing Studies’ annual survey, The Rock Bottom chain of restaurant-breweries sold more than any other brewpub group in 2001. Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc. - including Brew Moons, Walnut Brewery and three ChopHouse and Breweries - sold 39,342 barrels of beer (46,000 hl), an increase of 13 per cent over 2000. Rock Bottom increased its number of brewpubs to 31 nationwide after acquiring 4 Brew Moon Restaurants in the Northeast, one Hops! Bistro and Brewery in Scottsdale, Arizona and Cougan’s Brewery & Grill in Glendale, Arizona. Among the larger chains, Rock Bottom brewery-restaurants also sell the most beer per brewpub unit, with each Rock Bottom averaging approximately 1,269 barrels of beer sales in 2001. "Tabelle"