Boags purchased by Lion Nathans

[Tim...]

Yes, that's right, Lion Nathans have been given the thumbs up to purchase James Boag & Son Brewery. Seems I have another brewery to add to my boycott list (not like I drank it anyway )

More here:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 64,00.html

So guys, you have less than a month until the takeover. If your a boags fan, start stocking up now before it becomes evil!

[Kevnlis]

I had a Blue Tongue at Christmas and it didn't taste any different than it did before the takeover. Not that I was very crazy about it to begin with...

Not sure I have ever had a Boags, who is James Boag anyway?

[timmy]

The only beers of theirs I like are the St George and Wizard Smith, but neither are a patch on some of my brews so makes no difference to me.

And their brewery tours are crap.....

[Wassa]

Tries a St George on Boxing Day.......Very, very, very unimpressed!!

Yet their Premium Lager is drinkable.

Still gfive me a LCPA, Coopers Sparkling or Pale, or a Tooheys Old any day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[timmy]

Apparently they use table sugar in all their brews. Found it a bit hard to believe (especially since the Wizard label implies all-malt), but it came from their tour guide.

[Pyssedas Heavy Industrial]

I'd like to think that their tour guide didn't know what s/he was talking about

[James L]

Lion Nathan own Little Creatures......

[scblack]

Lion Nathan own Little Creatures......

No they do not.........

Majority owned by Directors.

[James L]

25%..... thats enough to have a say about whats going on

[scblack]

25%..... thats enough to have a say about whats going on

Just looked up Little World Beverages (LWB = Little Creatures ASX listed entity) 2007 financial report, and it seems Anglo-Gaelic Investments Pty Ltd hold 33.85%.

Anglo-Gaelic is a Lion Nathan entity, so thats just above a third.

I stand corrected.

[James L]

I wasnt trying to have a go at you Scblack, but i think i shouldve been a little more clearer when i said that lion nathan owned little creatures. I didnt mean that they owned it all, i just knew they owned a small chunk.

In a way, i think that the larger brewer in this case "Lion nathan" has been able to assist little creatures in their success with distribution and marketing of the beer.

I know that lion nathan will not change the beer produced by little creatures becuase of its popularity and uniquness. But it could be a different story for Boags.

[Pyssedas Heavy Industrial]

Hmm would have thought that they would be unlikely to muck around with boags too much - for the same reasons they didn't with Little Creatures

There is not much point in spending that much money to acquire an asset only to then ruin it

[rwh]

Normally megaswill companies do one thing to beers they've purchased: remove flavour. This is done for several reasons:

1. Cheaper ingredients. All-malt beers have more maltiness and need to be balanced with more hops; remove a lot of the malt and you need less hops. Replace the malt dextrose or sucrose which are cheaper (by several orders of magnitude).
2. Less flavour = less offensive to the uneducated pallet.

To make these flavourless insipid brews drinkable, they need to be served cold. Very cold. Hence the growing trend for "chill", "ice", "superchill", "ice cold", "super cold" blah blah blah.

What they're trying to do here is increase their profit by making a cheaper, more widely appealing product. Think McDonalds vs a Gourmet restaurant.

I don't think they'll be able to resist.

[Pyssedas Heavy Industrial]

I don't disagree with the statements about the chilled beer being a way to mask the flavour - but i can't think of that many beers which have become "superchilled" following purchase by a large company

I don't think that i'm going to convert that many people to my thinking but i don't think that the purchase of smaller breweries by larger ones is necessarily the same sized problems that others here point to

[rwh]

I don't disagree with the statements about the chilled beer being a way to mask the flavour - but i can't think of that many beers which have become "superchilled" following purchase by a large company

How about Guinness? Guinness Extra Stout -> Guinness Draught -> Guinness Extra Cold

I don't think that i'm going to convert that many people to my thinking but i don't think that the purchase of smaller breweries by larger ones is necessarily the same sized problems that others here point to

Oh sure. Just so long as there are some small breweries left I really couldn't give a sh!t what they do. I never drank Boags anyway. If I've got a choice you'll find me at the Mountain Goat or Emerald Hill breweries. Or at my place, drinking pints on tap at less than a dollar a pop.

One thing I will say though: SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad they didn't buy Coopers!

[Pale_Ale]

I think we all accept in a capitalistic market that the 80/20 rule applies (i.e 80% of the beer is sold by 20% of the brewers, in fact this would probably be an understatement.).

However, this may change with the way things are going now, people are demanding alot more from brewers, and the micros have a lot to gain from this.

Of course the question is then - with sales steady and distributions in place, would the average microbrewer be tempted to cut a few corners here and there, to increase profit, leading to a gradual decline all over again?

Unfortunately a company is structured to be profitable first and foremost - if Carlton can save x amount of cents per litre by reducing the amount of alcohol in Carlton Draught, then they will - it makes business sense.

[warra48]

To a degree, I concur with the comments about megabreweries dumbing down brews.
However, the success of a lot of the smaller breweries and boutique style breweries is because of the fact the more discerning consumer is looking for a product which is NOT megaswill. If they then dumb down the product after a takeover, all the megaswill brewers end up doing is to steer those consumers to yet another small or boutique style brewer's products, or into imports.
It becomes a process of diminishing return, and somewhere along the line they will need to maintain the integrity of the breweries they take over, to keep the discerning consumers as customers, and to maintain their overall market share, in not only megaswill, but also the more discerning niche part of the market.
Discerning consumers do not become megaswill drinkers simply because of a takeover! If one is a discerning drinker, brand loyalty is a very small factor, whereas quality and character of the product are major issues.
PS I don't want to start a discussion about wanker's beers, eg Corona etc, and how they are marketed.

[timmy]

Weren't they owned by a megaswill before? I thought they were owned by San Miguel.

[Iron-Haggis]

Yes, Boag's were owned by San Miguel and San Miguel made a cool $200 million profit from selling it off to Lion Nathan. Honestly surprised that Coca Cola Amatil didn't go for it, since they probably could of used a brewery to start brewing under licence some of their beers.