Cca Buys Blue Tongue

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And no doubt a nice little earner for Singo................. And I bet he sold the brewers down there the line that he wanted to create a better product than the megaswills and was in it for the "long haul" <_<

Do we know where Coke are building their brewery yet?? Didn't I read somewhere that it was up the North Coast.
 
oh... does that mean the profits from bondi blonde will no longer be staying in australia?? :D
 
Well I haven't had a Blue Tounge before, had wanted to give it a go but I will now never buy one!! :angry: :angry:

My beef is not so much that another major corporate is now going to be brewing in Oz, but the fact that the owner has sold their soul to the DEVIL!!
 
i dont mind selling your soul to the devil so long as the devil is going to keep his end of the bargin and continue the course by brewing the same recipe (are there enough mixed anologies in there?!).

its just such ashame. I mean Serra Nevada isnt owned by a big corporate is it? and its survives just fine.

:ph34r:
I now state that I may be wrong in what im about to say as I have little knowledge of bluetongue.........
I think the problem might be with some of the microbrewries is that they dont know how to run a true business. They know how to be self employed and own a self employed business but not a true business (a business is financialy defined as something that you can leave and have no input into and come back to find it still making profit or being more profitable). So these guys are sloggin their guts out constantly to geet their businesses going and rather than making it into a true business they decide to sell. Im not saying that making the change is easy (its not), but if you know how to run a business not a self employed service then you could keep the best of both worlds. Of course this doesnt apply if you just want to sell what you have and be rid of the entire operation..... please take what i just said with a grain of salt and in the spirit of how it meant.
 
I now state that I may be wrong in what im about to say as I have little knowledge of bluetongue.........
I think the problem might be with some of the microbrewries is that they dont know how to run a true business. They know how to be self employed and own a self employed business but not a true business (a business is financialy defined as something that you can leave and have no input into and come back to find it still making profit or being more profitable). So these guys are sloggin their guts out constantly to geet their businesses going and rather than making it into a true business they decide to sell. Im not saying that making the change is easy (its not), but if you know how to run a business not a self employed service then you could keep the best of both worlds. Of course this doesnt apply if you just want to sell what you have and be rid of the entire operation..... please take what i just said with a grain of salt and in the spirit of how it meant.

Citymorgue I understand what your saying. I too do not know why the business was sold, if it was for personal reasons, fine but if it was due to lack of capital then why not do as Holgate do and sell shares to the public?? I can firmly state that once I have the $$, I will be buying into Holgate!! B)
Does anyone know of any other Independants that offer shares in their brewery??
 
I was thinking down a similar avenue, shares or corporatisation of business whilest still keeping in the owners hands (ie board and executive management).
 
Ok, just found this article...

"Pacific Beverages, the joint venture between SABMiller and Coca-Cola_Amatil, has acquired a brewer in Australia.

The unit confirmed today (5 December) that it has bought Bluetongue Brewery in the country for an undisclosed sum, with a view to upping its presence in the Australian premium beer market. Bluetongue's assets have been valued by Pacific at around A$14m (US$12.3m).



"The Australian premium beer market is growing strongly year-on-year," said Ari Mervis, managing director of SABMiller Asia. "Pacific Beverages is well placed to capitalise on this trend and our expertise in premium brand management together with CCA's distribution strength means that we can accelerate the development of the Bluetongue brands and grow our share of the premium beer market in Australia."



Established in 2003, Bluetongue operates from a brewery near Newcastle, New South Wales with an annual capacity of around 50,000 hectolitres. Its beer brands include Bluetongue Premium Lager, Bluetongue Premium Light, Bluetongue Traditional Pilsner, Bluetongue Alcoholic Ginger Beer and Bondi Blonde. In the year to November, Pacific noted, Bluetongue has delivered sales growth of over 70%.



Set up in August last year, Pacific Beverages sells and distributes SABMiller's international premium brands, while also handling the distribution of the Maxxium spirit portfolio."

So it would seem there was no issue regarding capital??
 
I now state that I may be wrong in what im about to say as I have little knowledge of bluetongue.........
I think the problem might be with some of the microbrewries is that they dont know how to run a true business. They know how to be self employed and own a self employed business but not a true business (a business is financialy defined as something that you can leave and have no input into and come back to find it still making profit or being more profitable). So these guys are sloggin their guts out constantly to geet their businesses going and rather than making it into a true business they decide to sell. Im not saying that making the change is easy (its not), but if you know how to run a business not a self employed service then you could keep the best of both worlds. Of course this doesnt apply if you just want to sell what you have and be rid of the entire operation..... please take what i just said with a grain of salt and in the spirit of how it meant.

Singo definitely knows how to run a business. I'm guessing he received an offer that was too good to refuse. The growth of Blue Tongue has been very impressive. (much more impressive than their beer!)

CCA will now move all brewing to their new mega brewery when it gets built, start using iso-hops, add sugar, up the price, reduce the bottle size, and laugh all the way to the bank as Blue Tongue becomes the new "Crown Lager".
 
Also listed are Empire Beer Group (Colonial Brewing Co), Oz Brewing (Mad Monk) and Gage Roads.

Bluetongue capacity 50,000 hec..... I bloody doubt that. Malt Shovel's around 20k, Creatures is a little bigger and soon to become quite a bit bigger. 50K? Good spin there Singo.
 
Dig
I am fairly sure it IS 50,000 Hec, but that is probably a yearly output. Not as good as little creatures, but it sure has the marketing there. I will ask a few mates, but am fairly sure that info is correct. 5 million litres a year (50,000 Hec) is only about 600,000 cases, and seeings it just about IS as popular as crown lager, that isnt too far a stretch, IMO.
Mind you, I wont be drinking any of the stuff, if I want something that tastes solely of acetaldehyde, i will buy some apple juice!
 
Yet another Australian company who's profits will now be crossing the Pacific. Won't be drinking any Blue Tongue from now on.

From the article:
"Pacific Beverages, which holds Peroni Azzuro and Miller Genuine Draft in its stable, has also entered into a long-term agreement with Mr Singleton to further develop the Bluetongue brands."

Does this mean that Blue Tongue products will be "further developed" into horse p*ss like Miller Genuine Draft?
 
Just to play devils advocate a bit... I don't notice that either of Matilda Bay nor Malt shovel are not producing great, challenging beer - and both of those are owned by the current two mega brewers. Sure they produce some dross and the odd brand gets dumbed down here and there for mass appeal... but they fill the gap up at the other end with more new and sometimes really impressive beers.

Not saying Coke will do that with bluetounge, but its not a done deal. And besides .... bluetounge was a micro of the type that seemed to be trying as hard as it could to make mass appeal bland mega lager in the first place. IMHO there's at least a 50/50chance that the beer will get better after the sale, it wasn't that good before hand. Hardly a tragedy that the very rich man who used to own it and manage it for mass appeal, sold it to a very rich company that will also manage it for mass appeal.

<climbs onto highhorse>

People's weird animosity towards the big brewers has me completely buggered??? The only thing that the big breweries do.... is make a product that doesn't appeal to you, but on the flipside does appeal to 90% of all the other beer drinkers in the country. They don't come round to your house and twist your arm till you agree to drink their beer.

Its not like people don't have a choice, the micro brewing industry is flourishing and the number of different beers available is getting to be pretty large. And its not like the big breweries are trying to stop it, in fact part of the reason that it is flourishing is because of the beers of Malt Shovel, Matilda bay, Knappstein, Pepperjack ale... all owned by the mega brewers. So I don't quite get where they are the devil incarnate of the beer world.

If people are drinking nasty mass produced swill .... its because they like nasty mass produced swill.

<dismounts highhorse>

Thirsty
 
This sale has been in the pipeline ever since Singo bought 50% of BT. He was in it not for the caring sharing aim of improving the lot of beer drinkers in Australia, but purely to make a killing in mergers and acquisitions. He built the brand and marketing to make a killing when a large company bought it. And good luck to him. And good luck to BT drinkers who continue to buy the product once SABMiller/CCA own the brand. It is just megalager after all, so it therefore holds no interest to me as a fine beer appreciator.
 
.... 5 million litres a year (50,000 Hec) is only about 600,000 cases, and seeings it just about IS as popular as crown lager, that isnt too far a stretch, IMO.....

Just about as popular as crown lager ... sorry, regardless of the debatable qualities of these two beers, the comparison of scale is just kind of funny. 50000 hecs is maybe the yearly capacity of Bluetounge and its also about the amount of Crown lager we made in the last fortnight.

Between the two breweries... thats a whole lot of beer I don't wanna drink
 
I was thinking down a similar avenue, shares or corporatisation of business whilest still keeping in the owners hands (ie board and executive management).


So it would seem there was no issue regarding capital??[/font]

Not about operating capital at all, according to the Herald article:

CCA's joint venture firm with SABMiller, Pacific Beverages, snapped up 100 per cent of Bluetongue Brewery for an undisclosed sum from a syndicate including media-mogul John Singleton

It's purely about the proceeds from the sale. Singo's partners would be pretty happy right now, too, I would say.
 
Just about as popular as crown lager ... sorry, regardless of the debatable qualities of these two beers, the comparison of scale is just kind of funny. 50000 hecs is maybe the yearly capacity of Bluetounge and its also about the amount of Crown lager we made in the last fortnight.

Between the two breweries... thats a whole lot of beer I don't wanna drink

50HL per brew, 4 times a day and 248 days a year will give BT an annual production of 50,000HL. That makes them a "regional" sized brewery.

Wes
 
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