Coca-Cola Amatil Re-Enters Beer Biz w/Australian Beer Company

DRINKS group Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) has sealed a deal to access a world-class brewery as it prepares to re-enter the premium beer market.

News of the deal came as CCA on Wednesday unveiled a 61 per cent rise in interim net profit to $247.2 million. 

CCA said it had agreed to lend up to $46 million to the Casella Group’s Australian Beer Company to help it buy a state-of-the-art 500,000 hectolitre brewery in Griffith, NSW. 

The loan will convert into a joint venture equity stake in the Australian Beer Company after December 2013, when CCA is able to begin selling, distributing and making beer again after a 16-year absence. 

The joint venture company will make premium beer brands, with CCA responsible for sales, distribution and development.

"CCA’s large scale sales and distribution expertise and experience, combined with the draught and packaged brewing capability of the Australian Beer Company, will provide international beer companies after 16 December 2013 with a uniquely independent route to market in Australia and the ability to partner with the leading non-alcoholic beverages and spirits partner for the licensed trade," CCA managing director Terry Davis said in a statement.