darrell.wallace
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From the Australian Yesterday!
It will be interesting to see what their flagship beer will be.
THE team behind Little Creatures beer has unveiled major expansion plans for 2009 including a new drop from an east-coast brew house.
White Rabbit will be made at a newly built brewery at Healesville in Victoria's Yarra Valley from March.
The move east is the first brew house expansion outside Western Australia, where Little Creatures was started nine years ago by six friends in an old crocodile farm.
"The crocodiles moved up to the Kimberley and we converted the shed and moved in," Little Creatures co-founder Howard Cearns said.
The group started brewing Little Creatures Pale Ale in low volume and sold it from the Fremantle cellar.
Sales grew nationally as the beer caught the attention of discerning drinkers. In 2002, Little Creatures was named Champion Australian Brewery, and Pale Ale crowned as Champion Ale at the 2002 Australian International Beer Awards. Soon after, the beer won Choice magazine's 2003 Best Australian Ale prize and the 2004 BBC Good Food prize for Best Ale.
"Sales increased and awareness increased as a result," Mr Cearns said. "We realised that to keep growing at the rate we were, we would need to look at more capacity over a longer term."
Little Creatures Pilsner and Bright Ale have been added. New hospitality revenue streams include the Great Hall trading area and Creatures Loft in Fremantle, and the Dining Hall in inner-Melbourne Fitzroy.
The company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in November 2005 and Little Creatures is sold in Britain, Singapore, Denmark, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Little World Beverage's 2008 full-year results show sales rose 30.2 per cent to $34.1 million from 26.2 million in 2007 while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 34.9 per cent to $6.18 million from $44.58 million in 2007.
Four months ago, a new, larger German-built brew house began production on the Fremantle site, and the old brewery was shipped to Victoria for installation on the White Rabbit site, where construction was completed three weeks ago.
Mr Cearns said launching the new White Rabbit brand instead of setting up a second Little Creatures brewery on the east coast reflected an older ethos of craft brewing.
"We like the idea of the return to breweries when they were part of the village and the neighbourhood -- it had a personality and a soul and the characteristic of the region," Mr Cearns said. "When you start spreading your production everywhere it becomes harder to control and manage the palate of the beer. The water and ingredients can be different, so you're not getting consistency."
White Rabbit aims to be a "distinctive, exceptional beer", Mr Cearns said.
"The White Rabbit brewery will be the same size Little Creatures was initially. It will be a hand-sell, on a small scale," he said.
"It will only brew once a week at first -- the brewery will have a capacity of 1 million litres per annum but we've got to work our way up to that volume over several years."
Little World shares rose 4c to $1.20 on Friday.
It will be interesting to see what their flagship beer will be.
THE team behind Little Creatures beer has unveiled major expansion plans for 2009 including a new drop from an east-coast brew house.
White Rabbit will be made at a newly built brewery at Healesville in Victoria's Yarra Valley from March.
The move east is the first brew house expansion outside Western Australia, where Little Creatures was started nine years ago by six friends in an old crocodile farm.
"The crocodiles moved up to the Kimberley and we converted the shed and moved in," Little Creatures co-founder Howard Cearns said.
The group started brewing Little Creatures Pale Ale in low volume and sold it from the Fremantle cellar.
Sales grew nationally as the beer caught the attention of discerning drinkers. In 2002, Little Creatures was named Champion Australian Brewery, and Pale Ale crowned as Champion Ale at the 2002 Australian International Beer Awards. Soon after, the beer won Choice magazine's 2003 Best Australian Ale prize and the 2004 BBC Good Food prize for Best Ale.
"Sales increased and awareness increased as a result," Mr Cearns said. "We realised that to keep growing at the rate we were, we would need to look at more capacity over a longer term."
Little Creatures Pilsner and Bright Ale have been added. New hospitality revenue streams include the Great Hall trading area and Creatures Loft in Fremantle, and the Dining Hall in inner-Melbourne Fitzroy.
The company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in November 2005 and Little Creatures is sold in Britain, Singapore, Denmark, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Little World Beverage's 2008 full-year results show sales rose 30.2 per cent to $34.1 million from 26.2 million in 2007 while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 34.9 per cent to $6.18 million from $44.58 million in 2007.
Four months ago, a new, larger German-built brew house began production on the Fremantle site, and the old brewery was shipped to Victoria for installation on the White Rabbit site, where construction was completed three weeks ago.
Mr Cearns said launching the new White Rabbit brand instead of setting up a second Little Creatures brewery on the east coast reflected an older ethos of craft brewing.
"We like the idea of the return to breweries when they were part of the village and the neighbourhood -- it had a personality and a soul and the characteristic of the region," Mr Cearns said. "When you start spreading your production everywhere it becomes harder to control and manage the palate of the beer. The water and ingredients can be different, so you're not getting consistency."
White Rabbit aims to be a "distinctive, exceptional beer", Mr Cearns said.
"The White Rabbit brewery will be the same size Little Creatures was initially. It will be a hand-sell, on a small scale," he said.
"It will only brew once a week at first -- the brewery will have a capacity of 1 million litres per annum but we've got to work our way up to that volume over several years."
Little World shares rose 4c to $1.20 on Friday.
