China: Tsingtao Brewery revenues increased by 10 % in 2005

Tsingtao Brewery, the biggest beer maker in China, booked a 10 % increase in sales volume and sales revenue in 2005, and the company expects double-digit profit growth in 2006, its president said on Monday, March 6, according to Reuters.

"I imagine profits rose by double digits in 2005 and we are confident of the same pace in 2006," Jin Zhiguo, the company's vice chairman, told reporters on the sidelines of the annual session of China's parliament.

Tsingtao, in which Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. owns a 27 percent stake, will report results in April. Jin cautioned his figures were unaudited. Founded a century ago by German investors in the port city of Qingdao, Tsingtao commands 13 % of China's fragmented beer market.

In Beijing, where Tsingtao competes with Yanjing Beer, market share rose to about 20 percent from about 5 percent during the course of 2005, Jin said.

He predicted prices of barley, a main ingredient for making beer, would remain stable. "As long as there is no natural disaster, global barley supplies should be enough for global demand," Jin said. "France, Australia and Canada should be able to meet China's demand, and in Xinjiang they are also starting to grow barley commercially," Jin said.

The Chinese government is increasingly conscious of the limitations that polluted water and other environmental damage puts on its rapidly growing economy. Jin urged central planners to shut companies that don't meet environmental standards.

Making Tsingtao's plants environmentally compliant adds up to 10-15 percent of the cost of a new brewery, and 30-35 percent of the cost of renovating a brewery, Jin said.

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