Fosters Market Share Reduced

[RobW]

What's wrong with this statement?

"Corona is the jewel in the crown in the foreign premium beer category"



http://www.theage.com.au/business/little-n...00107-lww4.html

 

[HoppingMad]

Love the opening line "A lack of innovation has led to a whittling away of Foster's market share."

Hang on, they came up with that Low Carb thingy? Isn't that going great guns for them? After all, they've poured all that thin watery enzyme ridden treacle into a bunch of brands now - Pure Blonde, VB Raw, etc etc yada yada.

Ah - in contrast it's a great thing to crack open a cold homebrew and know the bottle you capped yourself is not filled with overpasteurised wee-wee created by a faceless corporation. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy really.

Hopper.

 

[zebba]

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy really.

Sounds like that HB you cracked open was an overhopped, high gravity beer to me... Mmmmm... Warm and fuzzy....

 

[Thirsty Boy]

soooo - its a good thing that an iconic Australian company is losing market share and lucrative BUL liscences to it main rival - a New Zealand company mostly owned by non-kiwi interests???

Because Lion Nathan makes all those interesting and flavourful beers that you love so much, they obviously deserve the profits to be had from Stella & Corona heaps more than Fosters??

I could understand and even join in if you were praising the conversion of the beer market to interesting/craft beers - but you are gloating over the transfer of profit from one big brewer to another; and the rise of the "Supermarket" brand. Hooray for that then

Excuse me if your celebration of what is a diminishment of my job security - for such ill thought out and petty reasons - makes me think of you a little bit like you might just be bastards

 

[floppinab]

So where are they going wrong then Thirsty????

Woolies and Coles having their duopoly at the end of chain placing too much strain on the bottom line??

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I once worked for the world's then greatest insurance middleman. There were two or three of them at that time.

It was standard practice for several types of clients to circle between them, thinking they were getting a better deal - which at the time of swapping, they did.

Many of my colleagues did the same thing with their suppliers; they called it 'Shopping Around'.

Mind you, they also thought FWH-ing was hooey... :lol:

 

[manticle]

soooo - its a good thing that an iconic Australian company is losing market share and lucrative BUL liscences to it main rival - a New Zealand company mostly owned by non-kiwi interests???

Because Lion Nathan makes all those interesting and flavourful beers that you love so much, they obviously deserve the profits to be had from Stella & Corona heaps more than Fosters??

I could understand and even join in if you were praising the conversion of the beer market to interesting/craft beers - but you are gloating over the transfer of profit from one big brewer to another; and the rise of the "Supermarket" brand. Hooray for that then

Excuse me if your celebration of what is a diminishment of my job security - for such ill thought out and petty reasons - makes me think of you a little bit like you might just be bastards

I guess it depends how you look at it.

It might be a good thing that an iconic Australian company is forced to review its strategy and product line because it's inadequate. It might be a good thing that an iconic Australian company is forced to think about how to offer something different from their competitors (this goes for most major companies) rather than just offer the same answer to the same product from the other company ('you produce a dry beer? WE'LL produce a dry beer......and a chocolate which has caramel and wafer biscuit underneath - just for something different').

I don't wish to see them go under - as much as I hate the domination of large companies on any market, going under means cleaners and office workers and casual workers and general shitkickers trying to make it through each day get fucked over. I don't know what you do there (although my assumption is something to do with brewing) but I have no wish to see you lose your job or job security either. It is a capitalist market which thrives on competition. Too often that just means the biggest swallows the smaller but if it can mean the biggest improves their game then that would be a good thing.

The article was partly about lack of innovation. There's only so many low carb lime infused beer for the non beer drinkers you can invent before you need to work out a new strategy. Hopefully someone does and it soothes the palates of swill drinkers, craft drinkers and 'non' beer drinkers alike. Unlikely but a nice dream.

 

[HoppingMad]

Excuse me if your celebration of what is a diminishment of my job security - for such ill thought out and petty reasons - makes me think of you a little bit like you might just be bastards

Excellent. Thought you might chime in Thirsty. Wasn't baiting a hook honest

My point above was more about Low Carb beers - a pet hate of mine. On previous posts I have bagged Burleigh Brewing for their No-Carb creation too, so Foster's isn't the only one that gets my blow torch on this issue. I was trying to point out more that this carb thing is the only innovation that has really had any traction of late and that's a damn shame that there's not other more interesting ideas out in brewingland that are finding a market.

I admit these low-carb things have become popular, and can understand why you guys and others make them, but hate them all the same. My scorn for the stuff is not a personal attack on you and your co-workers who create this beer, just the brew itself.

Gotta be careful though when you stick your neck out and infer Lion beers don't have flavour though - plenty on this forum love James Squire beers and last time I checked Lion were a majority shareholder in Little Creatures. Plus I thought New Zealand was part of Australia anyhow - just like Russell Crowe and Sam Neil and Crowded House?

Anyhow, I'd better get off this thread and stop being a smartarse before I start an all out war.

Cheers,

Hopper.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Having been a past employee of Fosters I can say foresight wasn't a big thing. Fosters sold off my arm of their business and since that time we have gone ahead in bounds. A few million bucks have already been invested in more plant and equipment and things really are looking good. Best sell of Fosters did for us. Flat out busy on sparkling production since last September and the next two or so months are not much different. When I look back I think of Fosters as a leach, one that was best shaken off.

I smile sometimes when I think of friends and work mates who jumped on the Fosters wagon and went with them. Look at us we work for Fosters. Yep I was envious of them a little after the sale and not knowing what my new employer had in mind. But as I said in the first paragraph its the best thing that's happened. I do have some sympathy for the iconic Fosters and its not a nice thing to see them struggling ATM. They will bounce back and it may take the selling of their wine division to loosen that noose. Get back to their core business all those year ago and make just beer, maybe?

BYB