Grupo Modelo’s Chief Financial Officer Emilio Fullaondo said in a conference call with analysts that higher spending on marketing and distribution, including advertising related to the 2010 World Cup, pushed up costs. Its operating profit in the quarter slipped 1 percent, while EBITDA, a measure of cash flow, fell 2.2 percent.

Private equity players like a high-risk gamble. Often brought in when companies need restructuring or about to go bankrupt, these scavengers need to have very keen senses. Those private equity houses that were in the business of buying low, adding debt, and selling high are yesterday’s news. Today’s players have to show a knack for fixing up the companies they buy because otherwise they will have problems taking them public, or selling them in parts, which are their usual exit routes.

Karl Ockert has been with the BridgePort Brewing Company in Portland, which he helped found and build, since 1984. He earned his B.S. degree in Fermentation Sciences from the University of California at Davis in 1983. Mr Ockert’s brewing career has covered the spectrum of brewing plants, from brewpubs to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Newark, New Jersey.

The four-hour Sensory Analysis Seminar is designed to train brewers and beer enthusiasts in the sensory evaluation of beer. Participants will learn to employ techniques used in professional breweries worldwide to assess the quality of ales and lagers.

Many analysts believe that AB-InBev will be keen to sit down with the controlling shareholders of Grupo Modelo to discuss an acquisition. After all, Grupo Modelo is an attractive company in an attractive market. If AB-InBev applied its cost cutting techniques to Grupo Modelo, it might be able to squeeze even more profits out of it.

At first, only Carlsberg dared to boast about its transformation from a brewer to a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company. Now AB-InBev has had its public “coming-out” as an FMCG company too. Though clouded in a lot of acronyms like WCCP, OPR, ZBB, which probably only AB-InBev insiders understand immediately, being an FMCG company seems to come down to using one common business model globally in order to secure scale advantages in markets which enjoy good growth prospects. Add to that some billion dollar beer brands and a lot of data-crunching which helps reduce a complex reality to a quantifiable, predictable and calculable model of it and you begin to understand why AB-InBev’s culture stresses common sense and simplicity. Do as you are told and do not make things unnecessarily complicated.

For the first quarter ended 31 May, Constellation posted earnings of USD 49.1 million, or 22 cents a share, up from USD 6.5 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring and other impacts, earnings climbed to 38 cents from 22 cents. Net sales, which exclude excise taxes, dipped 0.5 percent to USD 787.5 million.

The brewery is designed for future growth in 5–million hl modules and is highly automated. Because of its proximity to the U.S., the brewery will allow for a more efficient distribution of Modelo’s products in its export markets.

In terms of overall market shares in the U.S., AB-InBev accounts for 48.9 percent of the market, while Miller Coors – a joint venture between SAB Miller and Molson Coors – has 29.5 percent, Beer Marketer’s Insights says.

The programme includes: