How will the booze industry beer up?

One of my favourite parts of spending some of my professional time reading statements on SENS (the JSE’s news service) is seeing which companies are brave enough to include a little social commentary.

When a company suggests that the economy is doing badly, or about to improve, or something, that matters.

More importantly, it lightens what can be incredibly dense writing made more complicated by numbers (I have asked around to see if anyone has ever sneaked a joke into a SENS release, but so far I’ve come up empty. If you know of an example, please let me know).

So I was a little encouraged by the fact that beermaker AB InBev included a piece of social commentary right at the start of the release of their fourth-quarter results this morning.

There, right at the top (just under the address of their headquarters in the “Kingdom of Belgium”, and “Earnings Per Share”) was the wonderful phrase: “Beer plays an important role in bringing people together and creating moments of celebration.”

Now, this may be true. And I’m sure there is a SENS writer for a champagne company somewhere who feels her thunder has been stolen. But while beer might “create moments of celebration” it’s also more likely to be associated with a Friday night in front of the television.

I can also hear the sharpening of the responses from the anti-alcohol lobbyists, who could take that first statement and add all sorts of things to it – beer has brought people together in fighting, it’s created moments of violence… you can just imagine how that list might go on.

AB InBev’s update came just after they’d announced that they were going to cut 6,000 jobs from their global workforce.

There were the usual corporate explanations for this – that things can be done more efficiently, there are ways to get better value for shareholders, the usual things.

But it did remind me that the generations after mine appear to drink so much less than I do.

Of course, this is different from person to person and family to family, but South Africa stands out as one of the few countries in the world where the amount of alcohol drunk per person can sometimes still grow.

In the UK, “peak alcohol” was in 2004, and it’s been declining rapidly ever since.

The same appears to be true in many other places. Younger people have so many more options, of course. It’s perfectly legal for them to have their first spliff with their parents and when I was young, “gummy” was normally followed by the word “bears”.

But there has also been a greater appreciation of the role of exercise.

Basically, society appears to be changing.

I often wonder what conversations booze firms have in their top boardrooms when they consider their futures.

Some of them have done some really interesting things.

Of course, they’ve tried to exploit their assets, making booze, to the hilt. They market things that look like beer but aren’t, sweeter drinks for younger people, and basically try to extract what they can.

They also get on the zero-alcohol bandwagon. You will have seen billboards advertising the fact that you really must not drive if you have had a drink.

Even international rugby tournaments are sponsored by the zero-alcohol products of these companies.

I do get the idea. And it might work for them.

Like many people, I make sure that I have a dry month every year. During that time I find myself at a bit of a loss as to what to drink in social situations.

I’m too old for full-fat Coke, and Coke Zero loses its appeal after the second glass. In the summer a rock shandy can quench a thirst better than anything (and includes a touch of bitters, which does have some booze), but it’s a pain to make. You don’t want to have to take ingredients to someone’s house.

In the end I just buy a few six-packs of zero-alcohol beer.

And society has changed so much that no one comments on it; it goes completely without mention.

This is a very different approach to what tobacco companies are doing.

They seem to be pushing vaping as hard as they can. And while vaping might be much safer than old-style cigarettes, the fact is they are still addictive.

Someone I’ve known for many years told me he only started smoking a vape relatively recently, after someone encouraged him to try it. He spent the evening with it and then found he wanted more. Several years later it’s a habit that will be very difficult to break.

I’ve never really missed a zero-alcohol beer.

I wouldn’t write off booze just yet though.

Various studies have found humans have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years (it’s important to remember that the “beer” drunk hundreds of years ago was probably much weaker than the processed stuff we buy today). The Economist newspaper has even quoted research suggesting the evolution of humans into social beings got a gentle nudge from alcohol.

Despite all of the competition it’s incredibly cheap and easy to make.

More important than all of that, nothing else I know feels as good after a long, hard day.

And AB InBev is right. It does bring us together. DM