Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and owned by Japanese conglomerate

Asahi Breweries is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo. In 2019, the group had revenue of JPY 2.1 trillion. Asahi's business portfolio can be segmented as follows: alcoholic beverage business (4 ...

. Its notable brands include

Victoria Bitter Victoria Bitter (VB) is a lager produced by Carlton & United Breweries, a subsidiary of Asahi, in Melbourne, Victoria. It was first and brewed by Thomas Aitken at Victoria Brewery in 1854 and is one of the best selling beers in Australia. Hi ...

, Carlton Draught,

Foster's Lager Foster's Lager is an internationally-distributed brand of lager. It is owned by the international brewing group Asahi Group Holdings, and is brewed under licence in a number of countries, including its biggest market, the UK, where the Europe ...

Great Northern Great Northern may refer to: Transport * One of a number of railways; see Great Northern Railway (disambiguation). * Great Northern Railway (U.S.), a defunct American transcontinental railroad and major predecessor of the BNSF Railway. * Great ...

, Resch's,

Pure Blonde Pure Blonde is a brand of low carb beer and cider produced in Australia. the brand is marketed internationally by Lion (Australasian company), Lion. Styles there are three Pure Blonde drinks marketed in Australia: Pure Blonde Organic Lager; ...

and Melbourne Bitter. CUB was established in 1907 as a merger of six existing breweries with Carl Pinschof as chairman and became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

in 1913. It first expanded outside Victoria in 1931 and acquired a number of other brewing companies over the following decades. In 1983 it became a

wholly owned subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company (law), company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company ...

Elders IXL Elders Limited, formerly known as Elder, Stirling & Co., Elder Smith and Co. and Elder Smith & Co. Ltd, is an Australian agribusiness that provides agricultural goods and services to primary producers in Australia. History Early history (18 ...

and CUB was delisted from the stock exchange. In 1990, Elders IXL was renamed

Foster's Group Foster's Group Pty. Ltd. was an Australian beer group with interests in brewing and soft drinks, known for Foster's Lager, now called Carlton & United Breweries since the company was renamed in 2011. Foster's was founded in 1888 in Melbourne, Vi ...

, and in July 2004, Fosters Group changed its name to Carlton & United Beverages. In February 2009, CUB announced the decision to separate the Australian Wine division from the Australian Beer, Cider & Spirits (BCS) division, and rename BCS to Carlton & United Breweries. In December 2011, American multinational

SABMiller SABMiller plc was a South African multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in Woking, England on the outskirts of London until 10 October 2016 when it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Prior to that date, it was the world's ...

acquired Foster's Group, and took over ownership of Carlton & United Breweries as part of the acquisition. Subsequently, in October 2016, CUB was included in the purchase of SABMiller by

Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters ...

. SABMiller ceased trading on global stock markets and as a result, Carlton & United was then owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev. In July 2019, Asahi Breweries agreed to purchase CUB, with the

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Tra ...

and

Foreign Investment Review Board The Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), "examines proposals by foreign persons to invest in Australia and makes recommendations to the Treasurer on those subject to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 and Australia's for ...

approving the deal in May 2020.

History

Carlton and United Breweries was formed in 1907 with the merger of six major Australian breweries: Carlton Brewery, Castlemaine Brewery Company (Melbourne), Foster Brewing Company, McCracken's City Brewery, Shamrock Brewing and Malting Company and Victoria Brewery. The six breweries - along with another two (Melbourne Brewery and Distillery Pty Ltd and Coghlan and Tulloch's Ballarat Brewing Co Ltd) - had formed a cartel known as the Society of Melbourne Brewers in 1903. Emil Resch played a significant role in enabling the amalgamation. Resch also went on to become the first general manager of CUB. The company became public in 1913 with the issue of 100,000 shares. Over time it has bought out many other brewers, such as Abbotsford Co-operative Brewery in 1924 (a company set up by independent hoteliers to combat the anti-competitive nature of the Society of Melbourne Brewers.) Their first interstate acquisition was

Northern Australia The unofficial geographic term Northern Australia includes those parts of Queensland and Western Australia north of latitude 26° and all of the Northern Territory. Those local government areas of Western Australia and Queensland that lie p ...

n Breweries and the

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Brewery in 1931. Further acquisitions were the

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

Brewing Company, Queensland Brewery Ltd, Thos McLauchlin & Co Pty Ltd, Richmond Brewery and

Tooth & Co Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having be ...

. In 1983, CUB was wholly bought by

, a giant Australian diversified conglomerate with pastoral, financial, materials, and food interests. Elders Brewing Group (as it then became known as) continued to acquire brewing companies in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In 1990 Elders Brewing Group changed its name to Foster's Group, to reflect the name of their most internationally recognised product. In 1985, CUB purchased the

Tooth and Co. Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having be ...

site on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

in Sydney. The company demolished all of the existing Kent Brewery buildings on this site, except for one. CUB Management decided to close the Broadway site in 2003, with one of the reasons given being that it was a "large island of industry stranded in Sydney's central residential revival" that was happening in nearby Chippendale. In 2007, the site was sold and redeveloped into a commercial complex containing office blocks, shopping centre, and a boutique hotel known as The Old Clare Hotel. In July 2004, Carlton & United Breweries changed its name to Carlton & United Beverages (retaining CUB acronym), citing the company's diversification into pre-mixed drinks, juices, ciders and non-alcoholic drinks. In February 2009, Foster's announced the outcomes of a review of its global wine business, including the decision to separate the Australian Wine division from the Australian Beer, Cider & Spirits (BCS) division, and rename BCS to Carlton & United Breweries.Foster's announces the outcomes from its wine review
ASX announcement 17 February 2009, Media Centre, fosters.com.au. Accessed 2009-10-10. In mid-June 2016 CUB made the controversial decision to lay off 55 workers (mostly electricians and fitters) before inviting those same workers to reapply for their old jobs on individual contracts involving stripped conditions, clauses and significant pay cuts (the workers are suggesting a 65 per cent wage cut once penalty rates and other entitlements are factored in). SABMiller, CUB's global owner, responded to criticisms from the union movement that its action was not illegal as it has no direct contractual relationship with the maintenance crews that were laid off. Rather, it has a contractual relationship with one subcontractor and the action constitutes the "passing" of a contract to another, which has the prerogative to set pay and conditions of workers at its own discretion. SABMiller have made no comment regarding the lower pay and poorer conditions offered to workers. Carlton Draught 375mL Bottle

The decision generated considerable poor publicity for CUB, with a widespread social media campaign as well as union efforts to highlight the workers' plight, who argue the brewer has conducted a "transmission of business" manoeuvre. Several pubs in Victoria have stopped selling CUB products in support of the sacked workers. In July 2019,

agreed terms to purchase Carlton & United Breweries with the transaction completed in May 2020 after being cleared by the

and

.Asahi Group Holdings - Carlton & United Breweries (owned by Anheuser Busch InBev SA/NV)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission 1 April 2020

Products

After the takeovers by SABMiller and then

, CUB distributed their international brands such as

Aguila Águila or Aguila is Spanish for "eagle". It may refer to: Places *El Aguila, Valle del Cauca, a town and municipality in Colombia * Aguila, Arizona, United States Ships * Chilean brigantine ''Águila'' (1796), the first ship of the Chilean Navy ...

, Corona Extra,

Stella Artois Stella Artois ( ) is a pilsner beer, first brewed in 1926 by Brouwerij Artois in Leuven, Belgium. In its original form, the beer is 5.2 per cent ABV, the country's standard for pilsners. The beer is also sold in other countries like the UK, Ire ...

, Beck's,

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrela ...

Hoegaarden Hoegaarden () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Hoegaarden proper, Meldert and Outgaarden. On January 1, 2006, Hoegaarden had a tota ...

Leffe Leffe () is a premium beer brand owned by InBev Belgium, the European operating arm of the global Anheuser–Busch InBev brewery giant. There are several beers in the range, and they are marketed as abbey beers. They are brewed in large quan ...

and Leffe Radieuse.

References

Citations

Sources

External links

*
History of the Foster's Group
Fosters.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlton and United Breweries 1907 establishments in Australia Food and drink companies established in 1907 Asahi Breweries Australian beer brands Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Foster's Group Beer brewing companies based in Victoria (Australia) Food and drink companies based in Melbourne Manufacturing companies based in Melbourne