Fosters Group

A REPORT ON

FOSTERS AND ITS KEY COMPETITORS

Written for: Mike Taafe

Title: Lecturer

Company: Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE)

Department of Marketing & Media, School of Business

Written by: Allen Chen, Eva Nguyen, Harris Wong & Matty Pandelis

Title: Student

Company: Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE)

Department of Marketing & Media, School of Business

Submission Date: October 14th 2009

Profile of Key Competitors

There are few competitors for Foster’s Group; the main ones are Lion Nathan and Coopers Brewery.

Lion Nathan

Lion Nathan, which ranks 2nd in the beer industry in terms of market share, is a publicly listed Japanese-controlled company with operations in both Australia and New Zealand. The company employs over 1,800 Australians and 1,400 New Zealanders to manage and run their production. The company’s headquarter is located in Sydney, Australia. Similar to Foster’s Group, Lion Nathan boasts a wide variety of products, which include:

• Heineken

• Tooheys

• XXXX

• Becks

• Hahn

• James Boags & Son

• Kirin Ichiban

(Lion Nathan, 2009)

Lion Nathan, along with Fosters Group, control over 81% of the beer and malt manufacturing industry. Also Lion Nathan is listed on both the ASX as well as the New Zealand Stock Exchange. It is 46% owned by Kirin, with the difference made up by Australian and New Zealand share funds. However, this is likely to change as Kirin has recently made a takeover bid for Lion Nathan and the share offer is currently subjected to acceptance by the Australian and New Zealander shareholders. The company owns 9 breweries and one contract bottling plant in Australia and New Zealand. (Lion Nathan, 2009)

Coopers

Coopers Brewery was originally brewed in 1862, where Thomas Cooper started his brewing business. It is an Australian beer company, which is publicly owned but not listed on the stock exchange. The extended...