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And if you don’t think craft beer’s emergence in the “Land Down Under” didn’t play a part in this heritage brewery’s decline…think again. But multinationals played a part as well.
Coopers, a family owned company, is the largest Australian-owned brewery and commands nearly 5 percent of the national beer market, behind industry giants Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) which is owned by the global giant AB InBev and Lion, owned by Japan’s Kirin Corporation.
According to the Financial Review Coopers “annual profit in 2017-18 had increased marginally due to “a new $65 million malting plant at its brewery in Adelaide’s western suburbs” …but added that “the company is being squeezed at the mainstream end by more aggression from big multinational players and by nimble craft brewers courting the traditional bearded hipster market and inner-city drinkers.”
Coopers sales declined 15.9 % in Victoria, 17.7% in Western Australia and 11.6 % in Queensland Province. And although sales did increase 0.5 percent in its home market of South Australia, overall beer volumes dropped 9.1 percent, the brewery’s first decline in total beer sales since 1993.
Australia’s mainstream beer players have been in decline for years as consumer’s transition from mass-market brands to smaller independent craft brewers.
And just as in the US and the UK global brewers like AB InBev (who purchased Sydney’s 4Pines and the Adelaide-based Pirate Life in 2017) have added to the increasingly difficult situation, that the larger independent brewers such as Coopers are experiencing today.
The Australian craft beer industry is estimated to be worth $740 million annually. And that number is expected to rise as much as 20% a year further impacting mainstream beer sales, which are continuing to decline, and presenting even more headaches for multi-national conglomerates like CUB and Lion and local producers like Coopers.
