Beer News - De Bortolo Moves into Brewing
De Bortoli to Move into Brewing
(27 February 2007, Just-Drinks)
"De Bortoli, one of Australia’s top ten wine producers, has launched its brewing business in Griffith, New South Wales, where it bought a brewery eight years ago.
“We just saw an opportunity in the boutique craft beer market,” managing director Darren De Bortoli told ABC News today (27 February). “It’s a sector that’s growing very rapidly.”
According to ABC, up to 15 jobs will be created at the brewery, which is expected to be up and running in three years.
Demand for premium beer - both craft and imports - in Australia is soaring, with sales growing by 15% every year since 2001.
Australia’s largest wine group, Hardy Wine Co., distributes the beers of Western Australia’s Gage Roads Brewing Co. as it looks to expand its portfolio in the face of a tough wine market.
A slew of craft brewers have also floated on the Australian stock market in the last 12 months in a bid to generate funds for expansion."
(27 February 2007, Just-Drinks)
"De Bortoli, one of Australia’s top ten wine producers, has launched its brewing business in Griffith, New South Wales, where it bought a brewery eight years ago.
“We just saw an opportunity in the boutique craft beer market,” managing director Darren De Bortoli told ABC News today (27 February). “It’s a sector that’s growing very rapidly.”
According to ABC, up to 15 jobs will be created at the brewery, which is expected to be up and running in three years.
Demand for premium beer - both craft and imports - in Australia is soaring, with sales growing by 15% every year since 2001.
Australia’s largest wine group, Hardy Wine Co., distributes the beers of Western Australia’s Gage Roads Brewing Co. as it looks to expand its portfolio in the face of a tough wine market.
A slew of craft brewers have also floated on the Australian stock market in the last 12 months in a bid to generate funds for expansion."
Labels: Beer News
posted by Stewart Went at
4:01 pm
2 Comments:
Stew, do you think there will be an oversupply of craftbeer in Australia with so many new brewers popping up lately? Will it go the way of the wine industry?
By
Anonymous, at 6:30 pm
Not yet. Micro brewing is still largely a cottage style industry but there is certainly evidence of strong upward momentum for acceptance of new beers. There has been a minor explosion of stock market listings for small brewers in WA but I think this is just as much a function of the weight of suplus capital (ie investor money) that needs a home. Of interest is that already one of these new listings has aborted construction plans in Fremantle and another has a flawed distribution strategy (in my humble opinion) of only selling through brew pubs.
We should also remember that there are some fundamental differences b/w beer and wine that should, in theory, limit the over-supply risk:
(1) there are no irresponsible tax schemes that encourage rampant expansion of supply (ie like accelerated depreciation schemes).
(2) There is no real developed export market for Australian craft beer (let's face it - most logical markets such as NZ, US and the UK are already well serviced by their respective micro scenes....and frankly Australia can't really compete on quality).
(3) Profit margins are usually smaller thus less likely to attract speculator types. There is much more emphasis on building efficient distribution systems (this can be a costly exercise). In the heyday of cult wines (say ~2000) any enterprising type could simply buy a few tonnes of old vine Barossa shiraz and engage a contract maker with a bit of profile, send a bottle to Robert Parker for review....and bam! ....charge the punter $70 a bottle. Pretty tough to see this happening with beer.
By
Stewart Went, at 7:06 pm
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