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Craft beer is emerging as a force to be reckoned with in Latin America. And with that success comes global beer giants in the hunt to possibly acquire them…
Currently there are more than 650 craft breweries in Brazil. In Mexico there are at least 650 craft breweries, in Chile almost 350 and in Columbia and Peru almost 50.
At the same time global multinationals like AB InBev are extending their hold on the region and sniffing around for viable craft breweries they can reel into their camp.
Forbes deftly details Big Beer’s growing dominance and craft brewery acquisition strategy in the region…
“Last year, {AB InBev} completed the acquisition of four breweries in Mexico through its local subsidiary Grupo Modelo. In Brazil, the beer giant bought Cervejaria Colorado and Cervejaria Wals in 2015. That same year, it purchased Bogota Beer Company, Colombia’s biggest craft brewer.
Heineken, in turn, acquired control of a wide portfolio of Brazilian craft beer brands, including Baden Baden and Eisenbahn, following the February acquisition of Brasil Kirin, a local subsidiary of Kirin Holdings Company.”
And Latin American craft breweries are becoming increasingly prized for good reason…
Bogota Beer Company
By the end of 2017 we could be looking at as many as 700 craft breweries in Brazil, Carlo Lapoli, president of Brazilian Association of Craft Breweries (Abracerva) told Forbes.
Even though craft breweries still only make up 1.3% of Chile’s overall beer market, those same breweries generated $82 million last year…And just as in the US (and increasingly in the UK) big beer conglomerates want in on Latin America’s craft beer action.
If Bogota Beer’s 2015 acquisition by AB InBev in 2015 and Atesana Beer’s purchase by Colombian giant Grupo Postobon and Chile’s Compania Cervecerias Unidas in 2016 are any indication, Big Beer is actively in the hunt for valuable craft beer properties in South America…
A trend that we expect will only accelerate in 2018….
Greetings from Latin America image credit: Excelsior International
