Coopers Brewery continues to make strong inroads into the Australian beer market, with beer sales in the 2012-13 financial year rising 8.3% to a record 69.7 million litres. The result means that Coopers has enjoyed one of the longest periods of sustained growth in the company’s history, averaging 9.8% for the past 20 years.
Coopers’ Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said Coopers now accounted for around 4.5% of the total Australian beer market and expected this position to continue to improve over the coming years.
Dr Cooper also revealed that the brewery had absorbed the Federal Government’s most recent excise increase for packaged beer, which came into effect on August 1, rather than passing it on to consumers. The excise increase represents about 12 cents a carton for normal strength beer.
Dr Cooper said the company’s growth had enabled the company to emerge from being a largely South Australian-based brewer to a national company.
“In the recession of 1992-93, Coopers’ total sales fell to 10.8 million litres, our lowest level since 1985,” he said. “However by the late 1990s, we were in danger of outgrowing our Leabrook brewery, resulting in us developing the new brewery at Regency Park, which was officially opened in November 2001. The Regency Park brewery has since provided us with the efficiencies and capacity to fuel our continued expansion.”
Coopers is currently in the process of further expanding the brewery, including the installation of a second bottling line which was expected to be in operation by November this year. The second line will be dedicated to Coopers’ traditional products, including Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale, Mild Ale and Stout, which make up 80% of production. The existing line will then be used for the other beers produced at Coopers, including lagers and the international brands Sapporo and Carlsberg.
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