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SABMiller aims to reinvent pint as profits surge

By This Is Money
Updated: 09:11 EDT, 19 May 2011

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Brewing giant SABMiller wants to reduce the amount of water required to make a pint of beer at its new £3m research brewery in Nottingham next month.

Cheers: Strong growth in emerging markets in Asia

In addition to the growing of barley and hops, which requires as much as 150 pints of water per pint in a warm climate such as South Africa, the brewing process on its own uses five pints of water to brew one pint of beer.

SABMiller has a target to cut that to three and a half pints by 2015, which it aims to hit using research carried out at the new facility.

No new jobs will be created at the site, which will be housed within the University of Nottingham's School of Biosciences. SABMiller's existing staff will use it alongside PhD students at the university.

The Castle, Peroni and Miller brands owner also revealed strong growth in emerging markets in Asia, South Africa and Latin America, offsetting a sluggish performance in Europe and the US last year.

The UK market provided a trading highlight for the brewer in Europe as all its brands recorded double-digit volume increases. Its flagship brand Peroni Nastro Azzurro, grew volumes by more than fifth, far stronger than the premium market overall, which rose only marginally.

SABMiller said increased draught sales of its premium-priced 'World Beers', which include Pilsner Urquell, Polish brand Tyskie and Miller Genuine Draft as well as Peroni, boosted the UK total.

Group profits surged by 24% to £2.2bn in the year to March on revenues up by 7%, as a 20% increase in Africa and 16% growth in Asia outstripped a flat US and lower European performance.

Total beverage volumes rose by 3% to 270m hectolitres with lager volumes up 2%, soft drinks up 3% and other alcoholic drinks up 22%.

Chief executive Graham McKay said that consumer demand was likely to continue growing in most developing markets, but that the outlook for inflation and the pace of recovery in Europe and North America made trading more uncertain.

Broker Numis is slightly downbeat on the outlook, suggesting the uncertainties in the two mature markets of the US and Europe will overshadow the good performance elsewhere.

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