Coopers Brewery of South Australia has withstood the impact of the Global Financial Crisis and high malt prices to continue its growth in sales and profits during the 2009 financial year.
The company’s turnover for 2008-09 increased 5% to $169 million, compared with $161 million in 2007-08, while after tax profit rose to $20.3 million, compared with $20.2 million in the previous year.
And it is predicting that records will continue to tumble in 2010, with beer sales expected to exceed 60 million litres for the first time.
Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said that a total of 58.781 million litres of beer was sold during calendar year 2009, an increase of 4.9% over the 2008 figure of 56.024 million litres.
“In the six months ending December 31, 2009, beer sales rose 7.4%, with particularly strong
growth in NSW (19.2%), Victoria (11.9%) and Queensland (11.1%).
“Other good markets for us were the Northern Territory (8.4%) and overseas (9.3%), with most of this export growth being to New Zealand.”
Dr Cooper said that the increased sales between July and December appeared to be associated
with a general recovery in the economy, together with a strong performance by Coopers’ interstate distribution company, Premium Beverages.
“The launch of Coopers 62 Pilsner in September was also very successful, with sales being above budget for the first four months,” he said.
“While the financial slowdown did impact on beer sales, this was partially offset by a rise of 3.9% in home brew sales. However, Coopers Original Pale Ale continues to be the driving force for Coopers, accounting for around 65% of our beer sales.”
To cope with the expected growth in 2010 and beyond, Coopers is planning to introduce a faster packaging line and a permanent second shift.
Dr Cooper said interstate growth was also expected to increase as a result of the activities of Premium Beverages, an 80% owned subsidiary of Coopers responsible for driving interstate sales, and the introduction of new products.
Premium Beverages was also previously responsible for the distribution of Budweiser within
Australia and New Zealand.
However, these distribution rights will cease in December this year following the purchase of
Anheuser-Busch by global brewer InBev in late 2008 and a review of distribution arrangements.
“This change may create opportunities to explore alternative options in pursuing distribution of
international premium beers,” Dr Cooper said.
It is constantly incredible to see exactly where know-how goes and the potential of gaming is no various. There are a lot of cool and quite modern technologies arising. There is no way to tell which one will make the up coming huge wave, but 1 matter is for guaranteed, it will have something to do with receiving rid of the remote as we know it!