New York – The top U.S. brewers said Tuesday they plan to raise prices this fall, even as some of their top brands are seeing sales volume drop.
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Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud Light and Budweiser, and MillerCoors, maker of Blue Moon and Miller Light, both say they’re going to raise prices.
But neither brewer would say how big the increases would be.
Pete Marino, a spokesman for MillerCoors, said the increases will be made on a local basis, depending on the market.
“Pricing has been very strong on the MillerCoors portfolio and we believe that we can take a moderate price increase in the fall,” he said.
Price increases have been helping insulate revenue results for MillerCoors, a pairing of SABMiller’s U.S. unit and Coors Brewing Co., from the increasing trend of consumers limiting their spending.
Anheuser-Busch said in a statement it plans on raising prices on a majority of its volume in the bulk of its markets this fall too, to cover some increases in its costs.
“The markets have been assessed, and we’ll be acting on a by-market, by-brand and by-package basis,” according to the statement from the company, the St. Louis-based North American unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Sales of Miller Lite — MillerCoors’ flagship — and Bud Light — the top brand for Anheuser-Busch — have both been suffering amid the recession.
Prices across all beers, however, have been rising. In 2008 the price of beer, ale, and other malt beverages sold for at-home consumption rose 5.3 percent, according to the government’s Consumer Price Index. As of July, prices on those same items were 4.6 percent higher than they were a year ago.
Its a shame that in this economy they are raising prices. Its the only beer we use at home and its already a bit of a luxury.
that’s why we stick to CARONA…
Just for the record COORS has a OU hechsher and MILLER GENUINE DRAFT has a OK so for those who want to be extra carefull there are many beers with a good hechsher. (most SAM ADAMS have STAR K) LECHAIM
I was sad when Coors was sold to SAB Miller Corp. Coors has always been OU. Budweiser never had a hechsher. Now all these companies have been bought out by the Europeans. Can anyone tell me if Czech beer maker Pilsner Urquell is kosher? Do European Yidden drink it?
Also, most American breweries have many new flavored beers with no hechshers or separate facilties so we need even more supervision to be reliably kosher. Now we see monopolies bring higher prices.
beer at yankee stadium will now top $10. it’ll take a week’s salary to have a few drinks
According to Star-K and Kashrut.com, all of the great Belgian beers (Chimay, Orval, etc.) are OK, with of course the exception of the flavored lambic beers. The Canadian Unibroue beers are also OK by these two sources – I recommend the Maudite and La Fin Du Monde. It also indicates that the unflavored American microbrews in the great styles, like Cooperstown’s Ommegang, or Anchor Steam are OK. No reason to drink chaloshesdik A-B or Miller beer.