SABMiller Taking a Page out of AB InBev's Playbook in London

This caught me by surprise:

LONDON: 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 Grolsh exposure to a fast-growing part of the drinks market.  

Meantime was a plumb target because...

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.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47297986.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47297986.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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.  

I don't have a ton to add here. I toured Meantime when I was researching the Beer Bible, and enjoyed speaking with founder/brewer Alastair Hook. (I wrote about his interesting thoughts here.) I even happened to see him at the Craft Brewers Conference--no doubt he was smiling to himself knowing what was in the works. At this point, there's not a lot to say--we've been down this road often enough that we've already said it all. (Though if you're dying for analysis, Pete Brown has some.)

Hook plans to stay at Meantime, which should assuage fears any fans have, at least over the short term. It's a sign of times.

Alastair Hook