Will Price Increases Stick?

Our friend Kaumil Gajrawala at UBS thinks 2009 is going to be boom-town for healthy beer pricing, despite the tough economic climate. Hows that? Kaumil points to strong domestic volume growth of 0.6% over the last five years while beer prices rose 3.5% last year, following a big 5.4% increase in 2007. MillerCoors and ABI had 6% growth in revenue per barrel in the fourth quarter, estimates UBS. "This has resulted in softer volumes, but pricing is worth 2-times volume