On 30 January, an estimated 135 million viewers will be glued to the screen to watch the Super Bowl. For the past 12 years Anheuser-Busch has been the game’s exclusive beer advertiser. Busch has reportedly bought 10 minutes of advertising as the Super Bowl is the greatest advertising platform in the U.S. The advertising blitz costs the St. Louis brewer an estimated US$40 million (or US$2 million for a 30 second spot). Miller Lite, on the other hand, is seeking exposure on another screen on game day. Miller Brewing is sponsoring www.superbowl.com, the National Football League’s web site for the day, which at US$1 million must be considered a sponsoring bargain. Miller will promote the web site on sports programming and through TV, print, radio and outdoor advertising before the game.

Martin Roper has been promoted to President of the Boston Beer Company. He joined Boston Beer as Vice President of Operations in 1994. In December Rhonda Kallman, Executive Vice President and co-founder of Boston Beer, left the company. Kallman and Jim Koch founded The Boston Beer Company in 1984 and introduced Samuel Adams Boston lager the following year. Also in December a share buy back programme of US$10 million was completed and an additional stock repurchase programme authorised subject to an aggregate expenditure limit of US$10 million. This renewed speculations that Jim Koch, Chairman and CEO, would continue to fully explore all take-over and merger bids.

Miller Brewing Co. is prepared to make major changes to its PET bottles to keep recyclers happy but would not disclose if it will proceed with a national rollout.
Miller came under flak from environmentalists, local governments and recyclers when it started testmarketing its PET packaged beer more than a year ago. In order to silence concerns and objections, Miller agreed to discontinue using the aluminium cap and tamper-proof ring in favour of a plastic cap and ring. The brewer originally went with aluminium because plastic did not offer the carbonation and oxygen protection it wanted, but these issues have been solved now. Miller will also switch to a label which will not disintegrate so easily when PET bottles are being washed for recycling.S. markets..

Molson Inc. announced that it would close its brewery in Barrie, Ontario, 100 km north of Toronto, on 1 September 2000. More than 350 employees will be made redundant. Molson plans to invest up to CAN$100 million over the next five years to expand its Toronto brewery and make it more efficient. The expansion will bring the Toronto capacity up to 5 million hl which places it ahead of the 4.3 million hl Montreal plant. The moves are part of a strategy to boost profits by making Molson’s breweries use their capacities more efficiently. The Barrie shutdown will help Molson save CAN$30 million a year. In 1999 Molson also cut 300 white-collar jobs in sales and administration. John’s, Nfld..

AmBev and PepsiCo. Inc. have signed a contract which allows PepsiCo to bottle, sell and distribute Antarctica’s guaraná soft drink worldwide. Both companies expect guaraná to be among the top 10 best-selling soft drinks in the world within five years. PepsiCo’s president Steve Reinemund believes that Pepsi’s global sales (US$22.3 billion in 1998) should increase from 5 to 9 per cent with the sale of guaraná. Guaraná is currently said to be the market leader in the soft drinks category in Brazil. The AmBev-PepsiCo contract marks AmBev’s first move towards the internationalisation of its operations.

J.R. Ewing, TV’s most infamous Texan oil tycoon, would chase anything in a skirt, but his heart belonged to Mummy back home on the Southfork Ranch. Emigrants whether they were farmers, adventurers or gold diggers, pursued the American Dream which beckoned with promises of freedom, power, success. Ultimately they married a Miss Ellie, because those who had made their fortune wanted sons and a dynasty.

Following a major reorganisation by Coca-Cola’s Chairman and CEO, Doug Daft, Coca-Cola has created four strategic business units: Americas, Asia, Europe/Africa, and New Business Ventures. In March Steven Heyer, 48, formerly President of Turner Broadcasting Systems, was brought in to head Coke’s New Business Ventures unit. Coke insiders Jeffrey Dunn (Americas), Sandy Allen (Asia), and Charles Frenette (Europe/Africa) will head the other three units. The executives of the four units report directly to Daft.
The overhaul eliminated the need for a company president. Therefore Coke’s President and COO, Jack Stahl, 47, resigned..

Anheuser-Busch has launched a new speciality brew, Killarney’s Red Lager, which is supposed to appeal to consumers looking for a rich, full-bodied beer. Cashing on the lore of Ireland, promotional items will feature Irish imagery. The red lager has 5% alc./vol. and is brewed at Anheuser-Busch’s Fort Collins, Colorado, brewery. Anheuser-Busch has also launched 16-ounce contour cans of Michelob and Michelob Light that sport the brand’s tear-drop shape. Let’s hope the cans don’t give people ideas to cry into their beer. The contoured cans are sold as singles and in a 12-pack.

The year 2000 saw the continued stabilisation of the craft-brewing industry for both packaging brewers and brewpubs alike, according to figures released by the Institute for Brewing Studies (IBS).
Overall the industry grew 4.1%, more than doubling 1999’s 1.9% increase over 1998. The net volume gain for 2000 was 235,000 barrels, bringing total sales to more than 5.9m barrels. Craft brewing’s share of the total U.S. beer market remained at 3%.
Last year’s performance renewed confidence among brewpubs and specialty brewers. More brewers today say they are truly optimistic, rather than cautiously so at the end
of 1999.8m barrels. Among reporting regional speciality brewers, sales increased by an average of 8.7% per company..

At the end of April Pabst plans to close its brewery in San Antonio. More than a year ago Pabst had told its workers that the brewery was to be closed but then shelved the plan. In the meantime most of the production has been contracted out to the Miller plant in Fort Worth, which left the Pearl brewery with a production volume of 50,000 barrels last year instead of the one million barrels it brewed as recently as 1999. Pabst intends to keep its corporate staff in San Antonio and will continue to operate only one brewery, the Lehigh Valley brewery, in Pennsylvania.