Drinks company Asahi Premium Beverages recently redeveloped and expanded its Melbourne brewery to pave the way for a greater presence in the local beer market and to cement its status as a multi-beverage supplier.
Asahi Premium Beverages, the Australian arm of the Japanese beverage and food giant Asahi Group Holdings, has just finished a major infrastructure upgrade at its Melbourne plant on the back of the April acquisition of Victorian craft beer brand Cricketers Arms.
The company is on the hunt for more acquisitions in the craft beer space, as it seeks to incorporate new brands to leverage its existing manufacturing and sales platforms, according its CEO, Greg Ellery.
Cider is another growing category for the company. Asahi recently acquired the local licence for European cider brand Somersby, which is now the second best-selling brand in the Australian market.
The company’s existing brewery was built seven years ago and it currently accounts for five per cent of the company’s overall production, though most of its beer is made under contract for craft breweries and for supermarkets.
Asahi wants to boost the proportion of beer production to 25 per cent, and to accommodate this projected growth, the company recently installed new Steinecker brewing equipment and a number of new fermentation vessels, with several more to go in over the next 12 months.
Fermentation is the main bottleneck in the beer making process, according to Asahi, and these upgrades will help to ease this problem. The new equipment also provides greater stability for the production of the Cricketers Arms craft beer, which until now has been made at another site.
It can also accommodate a variety of brewing options for future SKUs. As the company can now access the top of its fermentation vessels, it has more flexibility than many other larger breweries.
Asahi has also invested in a new high-speed, high-volume keg line with an output of up to 90 kegs per hour. This system provides new levels of flexibility as it can fill a range of keg sizes between 20 and 60 litres. The smaller keg size aims to accommodate the needs of smaller bars.
The keg line’s pasteuriser settings also allow for a seamless switch between Somersby Cider and Cricketers Arms beer with minimal changes, reducing the processing times between brands.
The keg line is also highly automated. An external keg washer ensures dirty kegs are cleaned intensively as they pass through the external keg washer on conveying belts using a system of spray nozzles.
Cleaned and filled kegs are placed on a wait station located downstream to the filling head and are pushed from there to the discharge conveyor.
A cleaning-in-place (CIP) system removes production residues, deposits, dirt, germs and other contaminants.
The kegs are packed by a brand new robot that can lift both 25 and 50-litre kegs. Two new automated packaging lines from German supplier KHS means that bottles and cans never leave the production line.
All stages of the labelling, packaging and palletising process occurs on the same line. Asahi Premium Beverages says that when it came to designing the plant redevelopment, it factored in projected growth and future volume. For instance, the company can double its production volume on the new keg line with the installation of another filling machine.
“When we installed this keg line, we bought one that we can expand, a system we can bolt on to,” Ellery says.
Production of Cricketers Arms alone is expected to rise to over 400,000 cases, he says. As the company also wants to maintain the product’s craft appeal, however, it will also look to expand its brand portfolio.
“Our challenge is to say how big do you take Cricketers before loses is sexiness, quirkiness and we won’t take it over that level,” he says.
“Whether we go and buy other companies, which we will, and whether we maybe strike up some alliances with some of the bigger players, we put this line in on the basis that we have this great capability to expand.”
That expansion won’t include production of its parent company’s premium Asahi beer brand, however. “To keep brand integrity, we will never make this product in Australia,” Ellery says.
“If it wasn’t for international beer and craft beer, the industry would be in big trouble. There’s fantastic growth in craft. On premise, craft should be congratulated as it has helped resurrect a vibrant bar social scene.”
Although Asahi has very bullish market objectives for Cricketers Arms, the company’s investment could run into the millions before it starts to see a return on it, according to Ellery.
“But that’s one of the great things about working for a company like Asahi: we don’t sell assets. We acquire, invest and develop them.”
What’s on the line?
- A new high-speed, high-volume keg line that can run kegs ranging from 20L to 60L up to speeds of 90 kegs per hour
- A commercial industrial robot with a load of 240kg and six moveable axes
- An external keg washer, filler and cleaning-in-place (CIP) system
- Extensive brewery upgrades including new fermentation vessels and world class Steinecker brewing equipment
- The latest automated labelling, packaging, palletising and wrapping capabilities from KHS
Brand plans
Cricketers Arms
In April, Asahi Premium Beverages bought Victorian craft beer brand Cricketers Arms from former Melbourne hotelier Paul Scott, and it is currently relaunching the label to pubs and retailers across the country.
Cricketers Arms was recently released in two new SKUs: a full-strength beer called Cricketers Arms India Pale Ale, which is brewed to tradition using dry hopping and two specialty malts to provide a smooth, full bodied taste; and a mid-strength beer, Cricketers Arms Mid On, which is brewed using ultra high-gravity technology providing the full-flavoured characteristics of the lager at mid-strength.
Asahi Premium Beverages has also recently released Cricketers Arms Lager in draught, enabled by its re-developed Victorian plant.
“The Cricketers Arms portfolio further cements our multi-beverage platform and our aggressive push into the on-premise draught business,” CEO Greg Ellery says.
Somersby Cider
Somersby Cider is part of the Carlsberg Group and is distributed in Australia exclusively by Asahi Premium Beverages.
The premium European cider brand has established itself as the second largest in Australia, just a year after its local launch, according to Asahi Premium Beverages.
Somersby now holds a 15 per cent volume share in the total category in Australia, and as a result, the cider brand’s on-premise presence will be expanded with the launch of a draught version of the product.
Somersby Cider is is a semi-sweet cider and is available in two flavours: Apple and Pear. It is fermented with natural sugars and aromas.
Ellery says Somersby represented a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a product this successful in its first 12 months to market”.
“We are implementing further brand exposure as we increase our focus on draught in the on-premise market,” he says.
Asahi at a glance
Asahi Premium Beverages, the Australian arm of Asahi Group Holdings, makes 120 different products at its Melbourne facility. It acquired RTD maker Independent Distillers for $1.2 billion in 2011 and has since sought to diversify its product portfolio.
In addition to its recent Cricketers Arms craft beer and Somersby cider acquisitions, the company also manufactures liquor products, including craft and private label beer under contract for supermarkets and other companies, and it imports and distributes Asahi’s flagship Super Dry beer.
