UK: Brewers’ quarter results show that the beer market is underperforming since the end of the UEFA World Cup in July 2006

Scottish & Newcastle was left behind by an advancing FTSE 100 after third-quarter results from Molson Coors were seen to augur badly for the British beer market, Times Online published November 02.

Sales of beer in the UK have been weak since the end of the World Cup in July, a trend confirmed this week by Molson, the owner of Carling, the market-leading brand in the UK.

But analysts noted that volume declines at Carling were only in “low single digits”, against an 8.3 per cent fall for the market as a whole in July and August, implying that the brand has taken market share from rivals.

Sanford Bernstein, the US stockbroker, noted that “while it is too soon to say how much share Molson Coors has taken, and who has lost share, it is clear the UK beer market is very weak”. Scottish & Newcastle, the Kronenbourg and Foster’s brewer that has a 25 per cent of the UK market, dipped 1p at 563p.

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