Analysis of Royal Unibrew on the Danish Beer Market

Résumé du document

In the latter years the volume sales of the Danish brewery industry is declining, in the following pages you will find out the reasons why. The aim of this project is to reveal the opportunities and threats that Royal Unibrew A/S could face. Royal Unibrew A/S is the second largest brewery group and largest beer exporter in Scandinavia. Its head office is located in Faxe, Denmark and the Group comprises of 12 breweries and one soft drink producer. In Denmark the Group owns the breweries: Albani, Ceres and Faxe and Thor. In all Royal Unibrew employs about 2,650 people world-wide and exports to approximately 65 countries throughout the world with focus on the markets in Northern Europe, Italy and the international markets for malt drinks in Africa and the Caribbean. The net revenue in 2007 was approximately DKK 3.9 billion.

Extraits

[...] The five (soon to be four) Danish breweries that make up the group are, after all, still in business and selling their beers. The cooperation with breweries in Sweden and Norway may further strengthen the company and eventually lead to a much larger Scandinavian brewery. Then there's always the chance that one of the brewing giants in the world SABMiller, Interbrew, Heineken or Scottish & Newcastle - may decide that Royal Unibrew A/S would be a perfect addition to their international portfolio of breweries. So far Heineken is a significant strategic partner for Royal Unibrew in Denmark. [...]

[...] Moreover, environmental permits to Royal Unibrew to provide to final consumers a good brand image. The year 2007 marks the end of existing MACH II strategic plan, all the group's production units have strong focus on the environmental impacts of Royal Unibrew production, which is reflected in a strong commitment to environmental and health & safety work. In 2007 Royal Unibrew efforts targeted at: - Reduction of energy consumption - Reduction of water consumption and waste water discharges - Reduction of accidents at work These points are a success proved in the annual report environment 2007. [...]

[...] Royal Unibrew A/S operates on both BtB (business to business) and BtC (business to consumer) markets. A BtB market is the group of customers that include manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and other organizations. Our firm focus on the submarket BtR, business to retailers. The main customers for our brewery are resellers and distributors which have made an agreement with Royal Unibrew, they include pubs, bars, disco, restaurants and also supermarket. Through the retailers Unibrew reaches end-users, consumers, men and women from 16 years old which form the BtC market. [...]

[...] Carlsberg is a major innovator and is at the forefront of all new market developments. Trade commentators remark that competitors' new product developments are quickly replicated by a competing Carlsberg launch. This makes it extremely difficult for competitors to make inroads into Carlsberg's sales share. In our opinion, it keeps on treating Royal Unibrew A/S as an “association” formed by mergers and acquisitions of different small breweries. It means that Carlsberg is monopolist behaves like a “dominant firm price leadership”. [...]

[...] Industry analysis Denmark has one of the most dynamic and high-cultures beer in Europe. Beer is still the most popular alcoholic drink in Denmark, although in the latter years there was a decline of 16% in the consumption of beer over 2003 to 2008, so we try to figure out the reason why and what changes in buying behavior. Source: Euromonitor Danes starts to prefer substitute product like wine that has gone up by in the last four years, confirming the trend reducing the gap between beer and wine. [...]