Breweries

Brief Excerpt from Industry Overview Chapter:

Companies in this industry produce beer, ale, malt liquor, and nonalcoholic beer. Major companies include Anheuser-Busch InBev (Belgium), Asahi Breweries (Japan), Heineken (the Netherlands), Kirin (Japan), and SABMiller (UK).

Worldwide, breweries produce about 1.9 billion hectoliters of beer annually, according to the Barth Report. The largest beer producing nations include Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, and the US. Growth in developing markets such as Asia and Latin America could increase global beer demand by about 3 percent per year.

The US brewery industry includes about 400 companies with combined annual revenue of about $26 billion. Modest growth is forecast for the next two years. Key drivers that can affect demand include competition from imports and shifting consumer tastes.

The two major brewers in the US, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser brands) and MillerCoors (Miller and Coors brands), are part of international brewing companies; The Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) is the leading US craft brewer. Counting brewpubs and microbreweries, the brewery industry in the US includes about 2,100 establishments, according to the Brewers Association. Annual beer production in the US is about 225 million hectoliters, according to the Barth-Haas Group.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

The major driver of demand is consumer leisure activity. The profitability of individual companies depends on marketing, distribution, and operational efficiency. Large companies have advantages in marketing and sales, production economies of scale, and influence with distributors. Small companies can compete effectively by developing specialty products and serving a local or regional...