Farsons to build new brewery

Farsons is working on a master plan under which it will invest in a new brewhouse and soft drinks facility - a development running into millions of liri, the group's chief executive Louis Farrugia said yesterday.

However, he said it was premature to give details at this stage.

Mr Farrugia was speaking at a news conference during which he also announced that the company is to start bottling Budweiser beer brewed in the UK under a long-term agreement with Anheuser-Busch.

The beer will be shipped to Malta in tankers and bottled at the Mriehel brewery. Farsons will only be bottling beer to be sold on the Maltese market. Although glass bottles will be used, they will not be returnable.

The start of operations, Mr Farrugia said, would follow long months of preparation and investment. The agreement with Anheuser-Busch giving Farsons the right to bottle Budweiser was signed in January last year. Anheuser-Busch carried out a number of technical audits at the Farsons brewery and Lm1 million was invested to upgrade the company's bottling facilities.

Mr Farrugia said that although it has operated Malta's sole brewery for more than half a century, Farsons never took its market for granted and it never forgot that consumers had a choice.

The imported beer market in Malta, in fact, more than tripled in the last decade and Farsons had also become a major player in this segment of the market.

Farsons has represented Budweiser in Malta since 1984. Since 1995, when it launched Budweiser in bottles, it experienced double digit growth every year until the beer became the second largest imported brand. Mr Farrugia said trial bottling was carried out under the supervision of the quality assurance division of Anheuser Busch in the UK and the US.

"Through the local bottling arrangement, Farsons is adding value to the local economy at a time when all import levies are being removed and Malta becomes exposed to increased imports."

Mr Farrugia said that Farsons employees would benefit from the added production.

"Any potential further loss in volume of beer production which arises out of higher imports will now be compensated by the bottling volumes of one of the largest imported brands in Malta."

Alan Henderson, production director and brewmaster of Anheuser- Busch Europe Ltd, said his company was a very demanding partner but Farsons exceeded all demands put on it.