The British company Cadbury Schweppes PLC agreed to pay just over US$1 billion plus the assumption of about US$420 million in debt for the Snapple, Mistic and Stewarts brands and Royal Crown soft drink concentrates from Triarc Cos., New York. The sale will leave Triarc effectively debt-free with about US$400 million in cash for acquisitions. Although carbonated soft drinks still claim a lion’s share of the US soft drinks market, non-carbonated drinks and water could make up as much as 50% of the overall beverage industry’s growth over the next five years according to market
observers. In the first half of 2000, juice drinks grew significantly in volume: Snapple (27%), SoBe (90.4%), and FruitWorks (100%). However, some carbonated soft drinks lost volume: Sprite (-3.5%), Pepsi-Cola (-1.

After a planned sale to Platinum Holdings had come to no fruition in May, Genesee Corp., New York, which is the US’ no. 5 brewer, began negotiations with its management to sell its brewing division for US$22 million. Chief Executive Samuel Hubbard leads the management buyout group which will pay US$17.5 million in cash plus net working capital at close of sale. Another US$4.5 million will be paid by Genesee for a three-year note from the buyer for a net gain of US$5 million. Shareholders will vote on the deal at the annual general meeting in October. The brewer which began operations in Rochester, NY, in the late 19th century, sold 1.5 million hl of beer in 1999.

According to research published by the independent Center for Media and Public Affairs, Washington DC, Americans have developed an appetite for raunchy sitcoms. Not just "yuf" series like Will & Grace, Just Shoot Me or Ally McBeal are hotting up evening prime time viewing, 70% of all sitcoms between 7pm and 9pm deal with IT one way or another. Alas, it’s mostly talk and no action.
The reason why TV stations across the nation - and we are not referring to cable or pay TV where a glimpse of stocking, ahem, is a frequent event - are risking a run-in with the Moral Majority is, you guessed right, marketing. TV stations are trying to lure the most desired target group of all, Single Men, back to the screen.
Miller Brewing Co. It’s called "Eye Rub" and no, the title is not a euphemism.

In a bold move, Jim Koch of The Boston Beer Company, notified 450 distributors this summer that he would buy back all out-of-code (i.e. no longer brewery-fresh) Samuel Adams for the month of March. The brewer expects to fork out up to US$2 million to get back cases of Samuel Adams which have sat around too long with distributors. Until August more than two million bottles of Samuel Adams had been shipped to a recycler. According to Jim Koch, nothing was thrown into landfills or sewers. Even the beer was recycled into ethanol, an additive for petrol. The Boston Beer Company was founded in 1985 and was the 6th largest brewer in the US in 1999.

The Guinness Bass Import Co., USA, has decided to produce the Harp Lager brand for the US market in Canada under a licensing agreement with the Labatt Brewing Co, beginning in the autumn. The decision to brew Harp in Canada is based on, yes, financial considerations. GBIC’s president Tim Kelly was quoted saying that his goal was to bring the Harp lager brand to profitability, which would allow him to increase investments thus accelerating growth in both existing and new markets.

In September, Interbrew sold its 80 % stake in the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club to Rogers Communication for US$112 million. The transaction is subject to Major League Baseball and regulatory approval. 50% of the purchase price will be satisfied by the issuance of Rogers Class B shares. Labatt, Interbrew’s Canadian subsidiary, will continue to support the team as the leading sponsor of the Blue Jays.

Anheuser-Busch has been chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates as a national corporate sponsor of the four presidential debates for the 2000 election to be held in November. The brewer will be the sole sponsor of the debate taking place in St. Louis on 17 October, the company reported.

Instead of the forecast synergies in the order of R$504 million, the merger of Antarctica and Brahma into AmBev seems to require an investment of R$75 million to integrate the operations, distribution and logistics systems of both companies. As the Vice President of AmBev, Victório de Marchi, said these costs were not included in the initial plan for the merger, but were caused by CADE, the government anti-trust body, taking nine months to finally approve of the merger.

Kaiser, the second largest brewer in Brazil, announced that it would take advantage of AmBev’s re-focusing following the merger to increase its own market share to 20%. To this end, Kaiser has doubled its advertising budget and plans to invest R$30 million in a multimedia campaign that will use home videos of consumers in neighbourhood bars for television commercials.

Heineken is believed to be in negotiations to raise its current 14% stake in Cervejarias Kaiser. Kaiser is the second largest brewer in Brazil with a market share of 15%. Market leader AmBev controls 71% and Schincariol 12%. According to a recent report by the Emerging Markets Brewery Fund, HVB New York, the traditional duopolistic structure of South American beer markets is soon to be a thing of the past. In nine out of twelve countries, a single brewer controls more than 80% of the market. Over the past 18 months the major brewers in Brazil, Colombia and Peru swallowed their competitors thus strengthening their position in their domestic markets.