Earlier this week, Molson Coors (TAP) announced the intention to acquire Czech-Republic based StarBev. The price tag? $3.5 billion. That's a lot of suds in my opinion. The article posted on The Street openly suggests that it's not that great of a plan and while the European markets typically consume more beer per person, the emerging market of the Eastern European countries does little more than expand the footprint and the global scale of the company. With a soft U.S. economy, and the market, well, saturated with macro breweries, it seems as though this move was the only real logical one for them. But on a larger scale, does it mean that the giant watery titans are slipping into a spin that will ultimately end their existence? Doubtful, but the theory has abounded for years. With craft and homebrewing taking off exponentially, the macros of the world must adapt or face an untimely demise.
Consider the U.S. beer world. Twenty years ago there were only a few minor players in the craft beer industry. With the explosion of good taste and unique products, that burgeoning market grew into a titan of its own. Now makers like Dogfish Head, Avery, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, etc. put more beer into Americans stomachs than ever before. In 2010, the craft beer industry grew by 11% at a time when the rest of the world's industries were shrinking. Even small crafters like Goose Island were recognized to the point where the brewery continues to operate but under the ownership of InBev. We may have seen a turning of the tide as these huge conglomerates seek to grab up as many of the small breweries as they can, allow them to still produce under their recognizable labels, yet retain their profit margins.
We may live to see the day where macros literally cannot operate any longer as they once did, and are forced to diversify to the point where they enter other markets and simply become holding firms for dozens of small, craft beer breweries. With the near global meltdown of 2009 and the continuing crises in Europe, the days of the giant watery pseudo-beer producers may very well be numbered.
