MillerCoors’ profits, revenue rise; Anheuser-Busch InBev not the only one cutting costs
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MillerCoors‘ third-quarter profit rose 37 percent as cost cuts and strengthened sales of the company’s cheaper beers helped buoy the brewer’s profits, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
It’s a fascinating look at how well Anheuser-Busch InBev’s toughest competition in the U.S. is faring in the midst of a recession. As the recent results show, MillerCoors can play the cost-cutting game pretty well, too.
Reuters reports that the company, formed in July 2008, had said it would make $500 million of annual cost savings by the end of the third year of its combined operations. (That’s 2011, by the way.) But the savings will apparently continue after that. From the Reuters story:
MillerCoors now expects to save an extra $200 million by the end of 2012, to give a total of $700 million of savings over the first 4-1/2 years of its merger.
MillerCoors said sales of its cheaper beers increased, helping offset declines from its more expensive beers. Sales of major beer brands have tumbled as drinkers stay home, drink less or switch to cheaper beers, the Journal noted.
MillerCoors is a collaboration in the U.S. between Canada’s Molson Coors Brewing and SABMiller of London. Here’s the press release from the companies.
MillerCoors said third-quarter profit jumped to $230 million from $168 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.1 percent to $2.01 billion. That, despite a 1.1 percent drop in overall beer volumes (sales measured in liquid).
MillerCoors said Miller Lite’s continued decline was offset by growth in MGD 64. The cheaper part of the portfolio, which includes Keystone Light and Miller High Life, saw volume growth of low single digits.
Like Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors is on a serious cost-cutting kick. So far this year, MillerCoors says it has saved $183 million so far this year and $211 million since the joint venture began operations in July 2008. MillerCoors expects savings to reach $270 million by year’s end, $10 million more than its latest forecast, according to the Journal.
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
and not one person has gone to jail for creating the sub prime mess that has sent the global economy to hell in a hand bag. thanks you greedy bastards for all the losses of jobs and human dignity that you have created through out the world. what kills me is that they still demand bonuses.
I know , what does this have to do with the story. All industries are cutting back because no one is make much money because no one is spending because they dont know if they will have a job by the end of the year.
you look at unemplyment numbers, remeber that these numbers do not show the people that have been removed from he unemployment line because thier benifits have ran out. I would venture to say we are more like in the 15-18 % unemployment area.