E-Malt.com News article: Australia: New beer fermenters arrived at Coopers Brewery

Two new beer fermenters – each weighing 15 tonnes and worth $500,000 – were installed on 17th August at Coopers Brewery, as part of an ongoing $10.5 million expansion program to boost capacity at the company’s Regency Park site, the company communicated in a press release. Each fermenter holds approximately 170,000 litres of beer – the equivalent of 18,000 cartons – and brings to 20 the total number of fermenters at Coopers.

Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said the capital expenditure program, which begun in April, also involves the construction of additional office and warehouse space, along with the commissioning of a new high-speed labelling machine and the purchase of 8,500 beer kegs.

“The work is scheduled to be completed in varying stages by November this year when our hectic summer season kicks off,” he said. Dr Cooper said the work was essential to enable the brewery to meet rising demand for its beers around Australia and overseas. “We’ve achieved double-digit growth every year since 2001 when we left the old Leabrook brewery site and moved to Regency Park,” Dr Cooper said. “In the 2006 calendar year, Coopers sales rose a pleasing 12.6% around Australia with very strong growth of around 30% achieved in the eastern States. During the same period, our exports rose 51% - so more people overseas are enjoying a taste of South Australia.”

Dr Cooper said increased sales of the company’s best-selling brew, Coopers Pale Ale, accounted for much of the growth. “As we ramp up production towards Christmas time, which is traditionally our busiest period, we’ve been almost filling the existing warehouse. It was well and truly time to make the investment for an extra 7,000 square metres of storage space to support our continued growth,” he said.
Dr Cooper said a total of $6 million was being spent on the warehouse expansion and new offices, with the work scheduled for completion in October. It is the second warehouse extension since the 2001 move with 5,000 square metres added in 2004. A further $2 million has been invested in a new German-built KHS labelling machine which, once installed in September, will boost the speed of the bottling line from around 1,000 bottles a minute to 1,200.

The 8,500 new beer kegs, valued at $1.5 million, are expected to arrive from Belgium in November, increasing to 100,000 the total number of kegs used at Coopers. “With the new fermenters in place, more office and warehouse space, extra beer kegs and the installation of a new high-speed labelling machine, Coopers is primed for another year of solid growth in 2008,” Dr Cooper said.

He said the $10.5 million expansion was part of Coopers’ overall strategy to grow its share of the national beer market from 3% to 5% by 2011. Coopers already has 13% of the lucrative premium beer market.


22 August, 2007