Australia’s largest family-owned beer group, Coopers Brewery, has completed another year with record sales of 81.5 million litres, a rise of 3.3 per cent.

Packaged beer sales rose by 3.8 per cent and keg volumes also increased but at a much smaller 0.8 per cent.

FY2016 had a significant downside in that much tougher trading conditions in the US home brewing market have forced Coopers to write down by AUD $7.5 million the goodwill value of its American business, Mr Beer, which it acquired in 2011 for AUD $11.3million.

Revenue for the year increased by 4.6 per cent to AUD $245.9million but due to the write-down and the costs associated with the construction of a new malting plant in Adelaide, net profit fell by 16.3 per cent to AUD $24.2million.

The investment in Mr Beer has since 2011 returned AUD $5.3million and despite the setbacks in the US, Coopers is working hard to regain its place on the shelves of Walmart and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

The new malting plant is expected to be operational by the end of calendar2017 and should produce at least 54,000 tonnes of malted barley each year of which Coopers will use one third and export the remainder.

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