Adolph Coors Co., the third largest brewer in the US, reported a 5.5% drop in second quarter earnings attributed to poor sales in Texas and California. Net income declined to US$50.5m from US$53.4m for the same period of last year. Net sales went up 3.4% to US$692.7m as gross sales rose 0.5% to 6.4m barrels. However, distributor sales to retail outlets declined 1.1% during the second quarter.

Grupo Modelo, Mexico’s market leader in the production and marketing of beer with a market share of 60.7%, reported second quarter EBITDA up 3.7% to 2.7bn pesos. While domestic shipments dropped 0.3% from the same quarter last year, exports grew 20.8%. During the second quarter, Grupo Modelo shipped 10.5m hl of beer. Operating income was 2.4bn pesos.

FEMSA, Mexico’s second largest brewer, reported second quarter profits up 3.8% while the beer division witnessed week domestic sales volumes. The beer division posted a loss in operating profit of 9.2% and a decline in domestic sales volumes of 4.3% from the same quarter last year. Exports, however, grew 11.6%. Operating profit was reported at 2.3bn pesos (US$254m).

AmBev, Brazil, bought the Cerveceria Internacional at a price of USD 12 million and thus acquired 18% of the Paraguayan beer market. AmBev is already active in Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

So it was only a rumour that Argentina’s Quilmes brewery would be sold to or merge with Brazilian beverage group AmBev. Quilmes refuted this rumour which has been going round Latin America and even denied that any contacts existed between the two beverage groups. But we have heard this one before and shall keep our ear on the ground.

"Schlitz is gone, Stroh is gone ... and I am not feeling too well myself." This is how Pabst might be thinking these days. Greedy shareholders, sly lawyers, unscrupulous entrepreneurs: The decline of the regional US brewers has had several protagonists, few winners and one big loser - the city of Milwaukee, whose downtown today resembles a memorial to the brewing industry.

During the second half of the 20th century, three brewers made Milwaukee famous: Schlitz, Pabst and Miller. Among those big wig brewers - we are talking hectolitre millionaires after all - Pabst was the oldest. The brewery was founded in 1844. That was even before Milwaukee became a city. The Miller brewery started production four years later in 1848, Schlitz in 1849 and Blatz in 1851. But to a large part....

Mendocino Brewing Company, Ukiah, CA/USA, announced Mid of August that it has acquired United Breweries International (UK) Limited, (UBSN) a British corporation, along with its wholly-owned operating subsidiary UBSN Ltd. in exchange for 5,500,000 shares of Mendocino’s common stock.
UBSN was formed in August of 1989 and is the sole distributor of Kingfisher Premium Lager Beer (“Kingfisher”) in the U.K., Ireland, Continental Europe, the United States and Canada. The business is reported to be profitable with revenues for the year ending December 31, 2000 of 12,643,600 USD and Net Income for the same period of $ 411,900 USD. The Kingfisher brand is sold primarily to Indian restaurants.
Kingfisher is an international brand currently distributed in over 40 countries..

In June, August A. Busch IV, was honoured as the "Advertiser of the Year" at the 48th annual International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. The International Advertising Festival - Cannes Lions - is to marketing professionals and admen what the Cannes Film Festival is to members of the fantasy industry. Despite the usual bickering and sneering (presumably by those who could not take home any of the coveted Kings of the Savannah) that there are campaigns which appeal to the jury and others which appeal to the consumer, the award is considered the most prestigious international honour in the advertising industry.
Over the past few years, Busch has become quite a regular face at Cannes.
Busch is the second representative of breing industry to receive the award.S.S..

Finally the Genesee Brewing Co. from Rochester, New York, finished their management buy-out. Eight former employees acquired the brewery at a price of USD 25.8 million, USD 14.8 million of which in cash. Although the new enterprise will sign as High Falls Brewing Company the Genesee brand is not intended to disappear from the market. The brand will be shown on every label, except from those of the new beer specialities. These will enter the market under the brand name High Falls.
The Pabst Brewing Co. had offered to acquire some of the Genesee beer brands in order to have them brewed somewhere else but that would have implied the closing of the Genesee brewery and the loss of 450 jobs. The new owners already announced to spend USD 3.9 million hectolitres and sales of USD 103.3 million.

Miller Brewing Co. reported that the work at the pilot brewery (worth: USD 4 million) incl. bottling hall of the Technical Centres, Milwaukee, USA, has been finished. The Miller Valley Brewery - that’s the name of this pilot brewery - has been conceived for batches up to 12 hectolitres. As Miller reported, now they are better able to force the product development. Might it be possible that the opening of the Miller Valley Brewery has a connection with the decision of the group to get rid of shares of some microbrewers from the USA? In december Miller reported that they had decided to sell the Selis brewery, Texas, and the brand Celis. If this works Miller only holds the brands Leinen-kugel and Henry Weinhard, generally known as microbrewers. They didn’t name an amount..