The Beer Industry : Australia

     In this paper I will be talking about the U.S. beer industry and in short an overview of the brewing industry worldwide. I will talk about the barriers to entry, economies of scale, government intervention, pricing, current market trends, product differentiation, and imports. The focus being mainly on the U.S. brewing industry oligopoly. The U.S. brewing industry has three major players: Anheuser-Busch, SAB Miller, and Coors/Molson. Anheuser-Busch is currently the largest brewer in the world, producing over 100 million barrels a year. Anheuser-Busch currently owns over 50% of the market in the United States, with Miller trailing behind at 20% and Coors at about 11% with the rest of the market occupied by imports and craft breweries. When analyzing any industry, how easy it is for newcomers to enter the market is a great importance. If there are high barriers to entry

| Weaknesses * Many consumers consider the taste to “watered down”. * Challenge of expanding internationally due to the stigma of an American beer.

Despite the strong brand and strategic position that MMBC created, the company experienced a decline in revenue of 2% in 2005 (Abelli, 2007, p. 4). The decline is due to changes in beer drinking patterns, markets, and demographics in the region as well as the U.S. in general. The change in beer drinking in 2005 included a decrease in intake of beer in general. This was due to competition from wine and spirits as well as new national health recommendations to decrease alcohol consumption for improved health (Abelli, 2007, p. 4). Premium beer consumption was down 4%, but light beer use was up 4% (Abelli, 2007, p. 10). This movement of consumer purchasing practice, makes adding a light beer product attractive. Overall beer consumption was down in the U.S., and this trend was true in MMBC’s region as well. See Figure 1. This graph shows beer consumption in West Virginia, MMBC’s home state,

The problems in the market is that sales and market share has declined slightly over the past years and in the past 12 months the competition has increased, new brands has entranced the market. However on the beer market the big and well-known brands are controlling the market, and consumer often tend to choose a brand they recognize. Therefore it is important that the brand is identifiable to the public (Marketline 2015, p. 21). This

Brisbane Brewing Co has had a huge impact on the Australian population as well as the population in other countries in which it operates because it is a large employer and retailer of breweries such as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Due to its size and business scope it affects the lifestyles and lives of the people in the areas it operates. On the other hand beers are turning of and wines are becoming more popular, awareness on the effect of alcohol, decline of consumption on- trade in bars and restaurants and increase of off- trade.

Current Industry Analysis The Boston Beer Company’s product is a “better” beer. A better beer is defined as either a craft beer or an import, and is characterized by higher prices and quality. A craft beer is defined as one which is brewed with 100% malted barley as its grain. The major American beer companies typically use a mixture of malted barley along with other grains such as rice or corn, since these are less expensive and have less full-bodied flavors. Rivals in the better beer industry include such foreign companies as Corona, Heineken, and Guinness, as well as domestic companies such as Sierra Nevada, Pete’s, and a number of microbreweries around the country. While the beer industry overall is very rivalrous, the better beer industry is not so, as evidenced by high profit margins (the Boston

In the past 10 years, Anheuser-Busch has set its sights on capturing every stage of the brewing industry, starting with manufacturing, through distributors all the way to consumers. This began in 2008, as Anheuser-Busch merged with InBev to form the largest beer company in the world. Anheuser-Busch InBev then began buying up distributors and manufacturers throughout the world, threatening to overpower small local microbreweries like Listermann’s. This threat was enhanced in late 2016, as Anheuser-Busch InBev finalized its merge with the then second-largest beer company in the world, SABMiller. With these two significant mergers, Anheuser-Busch InBev now has the resources, money and reputation to launch a full-scale monopolization on the beer

The Mcguigan interest in the Australian Wine Industry goes back four generations. Owner Patrick McGuigan the first of four generations to enter the wine industry was a dairy farmer by trade.

Cobra has extensive knowledge in the beer industry as they produce a high quality beer, evident as Monde Selection awarded them eighty-eight gold medals, the highest quality awards in the world of beer. Cobra also designed their bottles to stand out from the crowd, this design helped them achieve good recognition within curry houses, as the popularity spread like “wildfire” (Smale, 2014).

Beer has a long history. In 2000 B.C.E., Sumerians had prepared eight different beer types, ranging from “strong,” “red brown,” and “good dark” (Mauk, 2013). Breweries have created their own recipes, brewed their own beers—some with alcohol, some without. Over the past few years, craft beer gained steady market share away from the national and international breweries (Murray & O 'Neill, 2012). Separating one beer from the next is the product itself, and what the product has to offer. Competition is ferocious due to more informed, sophisticated consumers, as well as globalization and the spread of technology (Murray & O 'Neill, 2012).

As the world’s largest brewer, AB Inbev has the ability to compete in new and foreign markets as a strong threat. Due to their enormous capital and expansion-based strategy, they can enter any market as a challenger and shutdown competition to become the leading brewer in this market. As an aggregated note we can also see this in domestic or already dominated markets because due to economics of scale they can achieve differentiated products at a low cost.

Although sales of premium brands have fallen in a steady response to the growing popularity of the craft beer. The industry revenue has been stable over the past 5 years. As a result, from 2011 to 2016 the industry revenue is expected an increase and growth annually at 6.7 percent over the five years,with a total of $39.5 billion . (IBISWorld iExpert) In the long-term, these numbers are expected that grow 0.9 percent annually within the next five years. The potential growth will be seen in the traditional and premium beer sector. As a response, the giant companies in the industry Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors look forward into the merges and acquisitions as a strategy to maintain market dominance. The strategy is based on the

Despite the dominance of Carlsberg, in its annual report BGD could lay claim to being the largest Scandinavian beer exporter. This was because Carlsberg placed emphasis on licensing agreements or local production for its foreign markets, while BGD’s strategy was export led: ‘Eighty-three out of every hundred bottles of beer that we produce are sold in foreign markets.’ By 1995 the percentage of export sales by region of the world was as follows: western Europe 63 per cent, the Americas 10 per cent, eastern Europe 22 per cent, others 5 per cent. The development of BGD’s operations in some of these markets is now reviewed.

Beer Company 2 is a brewer of “seasonal and year-round beers with smaller production volume and higher prices” that “outsources most of its brewing activity” (pg. 120). It is financially conservative, and has undergone a “major cost-savings initiative to counterbalance the recent surge in packaging and freight costs” (pg. 120).

Beer is expected to post a total volume CAGR of 4% to reach 130 million litres in 2016. As the social drinking scene in Singapore consistently expands, beer will be able to expect a steady growth. However, in years to come, Singapore’s domestic beer industry will experience a slowdown as beer in Singapore is reaching maturity. (EuroMonitor International 2011, Beer in Singapore)