Australia: Coopers Brewery starts major expansion program

Coopers Brewery has commenced work on an $8 million program to boost capacity at its Regency Park brewery in Adelaide, according to company’s press release of March 26.

The centrepiece of the program is a major expansion of its warehouse, which will boost capacity by about a third. Other activity includes the installation of a new labeller to speed up the bottling line and the purchase of two new fermenters.

Planning of the warehouse expansion is in its final stages and construction is expected to commence by the end of April. It will involve extending the warehouse approximately 51 metres towards South Road and will add 7000 square metres of storage space.The work will involve re-siting of some existing employee parking and extensive additional landscaping.

Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said the work was vital if Coopers was to continue meeting the rising demand for its beers around Australia and overseas. “Since Coopers moved to its Regency Park brewery in 2001, we have enjoyed double digit growth year on year,” he said. “We are now producing twice as much beer as we did the year before we left the old Leabrook brewery.

“In the calendar year 2006, Coopers sales rose 12.6% around Australia, with growth in the eastern States increasing by around 30%. Overseas exports rose 51%. “Much of this growth has been in sales of Coopers Pale Ale, which is by far our best selling product.”

Dr Cooper said this growth had created the demand for further storage space in the warehouse. “Because Pale Ale, like all our ales, is a naturally conditioned beer, it must be stored after brewing until secondary fermentation has taken place and carbon dioxide levels in the bottles have built up,” he said. “During our busiest time of the year near Christmas, the warehouse virtually fills and we have reached the stage that we need to act now to ensure we have the space to continue our growth.” Dr Cooper said work on the warehouse was expected to be completed by October.

He said two new fermenters would be installed in July and would lift the number at Coopers to 20. Each fermenter holds approximately 170,000 litres of beer, the equivalent of around 18,000 cartons.

Work on installing the new labeller will start in September once it arrives from Germany. Once installed, it will enable Coopers to boost the speed of its bottling line from consistently around 1000 bottles a minute to 1200 bottles per minute.

The latest warehouse extension is the second since the Regency Park brewery opened. In 2004, an additional 5000 square metres was added, but this extra capacity was quickly filled. Dr Cooper said Coopers now accounted for about 3% of the total Australian beer market, but around 13% of the premium beer market. He said the brewery aimed to be around 5% of the total market by 2011.

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