Finally Miller Time
After several misfires, New York City-based Philip Morris found a buyer for Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co.
In a deal expected to close this month (pending regulatory approval), South African Breweries plc, London, will buy 64 percent of the brewer for $3.6 billion in stock and the assumption of $2 billion in debt. The new company will be named SABMiller PLC.
“This transaction puts Miller into a different league and [Philip Morris] will continue to have a significant presence in that company,” said PM ceo Louis Camilleri.
The acquisition gives SAB (which already exports Pilsner Urquell) a stronger foothold in the U.S. and provides Miller with access to foreign markets. Philip Morris can also leverage the new relationship with SAB to boost its food and tobacco interests abroad. SABMiller becomes the second-largest global brewer behind St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch.
But the acquisition itself may not be enough to take Miller out of its sales slump, according to industry experts. “Miller is really going to have to change and develop new promotional tools that are more effective ways of getting attention,” says Tom Pirko, founder of BevMark, Santa Barbara, CA, and a consultant to Miller.
Miller’s lead promotion agencies are Zipatoni, St. Louis, and GMR Marketing, New Berlin, WI. Its ad agencies are Ogilvy & Mather, New York City, J. Walter Thompson, Chicago, and Weiden & Kennedy, Portland, OR.
Home Depot, Atlanta, and Walt Disney Co., Los Angeles, formed a partnership to create a new line of Disney-branded products that also includes advertising agreements on such Disney TV networks as ABC, ESPN, ABC Family, and Lifetime. The pact will produce a line of children’s paints for 2003 and such other products as lighting fixtures and decorative hardware. While the two companies were mum on spending, the ad component alone is estimated at $100 million-plus.
Universal Music Enterprises, Santa Monica, CA, and Disc Marketing, Inc., Pasadena, CA, struck a multi-year agreement to produce music premiums for major consumer brands including Target Corp., General Mills, and Johnson & Johnson.
Equity Marketing, Los Angeles, signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Binney & Smith, Easton, PA, to produce a full line of Crayola-branded bath toys and art sets for the mass and specialty markets beginning this fall.
The PGA Tour has extended two high-profile marketing relationships. St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch renewed a deal making Michelob Light and O’Doul’s official beers of the PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour through 2004; Canon U.S.A., Lake Success Inc., renewed its sponsorship as “official copier, facsimile, camera, and binocular” of the tours through 2006.
