Coopers Brewery says it has recorded its 23rd year of continuous growth with beer sales rising 3.3 per cent during 2015-16 to a record 81.5 million litres.
The brewery says this means that for the past 23 years it has enjoyed compound sales growth of 9.2 per cent, at a time when total Australian beer sales have been contracting.
Releasing the company’s annual results, Coopers Managing Director Tim Cooper said packaged beer sales during 2015-16 had risen 3.8 per cent, while keg volumes had risen by “a small, but pleasing” 0.8 per cent. Despite the increased beer sales, competitive pressures in the marketplace and higher malt costs continued to squeeze margins.
Dr Cooper said Coopers’ revenue for 2015-16 had increased by 4.6 per cent to $245.9 million. However, preparation costs associated with construction of a malting plant at Regency Park in Adelaide and a $7.5 million goodwill write-down for the Mr Beer business in the US, meant that net profit after tax for the year fell 16.3 per cent to $24.2 million from $28.9 million in 2014-15.
Dr Cooper said the new malting plant, at a cost of $63 million, was the largest single item of capital expenditure in Coopers’ history.
The work, being undertaken by South Australian firm Ahrens, “is progressing well and is on line to be completed by late next year”, he said
The plant will produce at least 54,000 tonnes of malted barley a year, of which Coopers will use one-third, with the remainder available for export.