UK: SABMiller buys craft brewery | Progresiv
SABMiller is buying Britain's Meantime Brewing Company, swallowing up one of the pioneers of the country's craft brewing movement to give the owner of big brands such as Peroni and Grolsch exposure to a fast-growing part of the drinks market. 
A surge in demand for craft beers in recent years has stolen market share from the world's two biggest brewers, SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch InBev, as drinkers seek new tastes and support niche, local suppliers.
Sales volumes of Meantime's beers including London Pale Ale and London Lager soared 58 percent in 2014, compared with a 1 percent rise in Britain's beer market as a whole. The more richly flavoured craft beer also sells at a premium to standard lager, another draw for SABMiller. Meantime's founder Alastair Hook, its brew master, and Miller will continue to be part of Meantime following completion of the deal, expected in early June. SABMiller said it aimed to grow sales of Meantime's beers across Britain and use its distribution networks to export it to other markets in Europe.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but will be small in the context of SABMiller's market capitalisation of 58 billion pounds. SABMiller sold 245 million hectolitres of lager in 2014, compared with Meantime's annual capacity for production of 120,000 hectolitres. (www.uk.reuters.com)
