Miller CEO Lays Out Growth Plan

Stoking Miller Lite, fueling worthmore brands is key.

Miller Brewing Company plans to get on the growth track in 2007 after a tough 2006 by redoubling efforts behind Miller Lite as well as driving its portfolio of worthmore brands.

Miller’s plans were laid out Thursday by company CEO Tom Long, who was speaking to an audience of 250 analysts and investors gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Miller plans to return Miller Lite to growth with marketing that positions it as a “better beer,” Long said. This effort intensifies the challenger attitude that helped drive Miller Lite’s renaissance in recent years. The first incarnation is the “GHT” advertising episode now airing.

Long acknowledged that while the Man Laws campaign had social currency, it didn’t meet sales goals.

“Man Laws did not deliver the expected growth,” he said.

Long also pointed to the success of Miller's worthmore brand portfolio, a group that includes imports Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Pilsner Urquell, as well as a group of niche “world brands”; the craft brew Leinenkugel’s; and the soon-to-be launched Miller Chill.

Also, Sparks has been thriving since Miller acquired it -- at least in part because Miller preserved the sales force that made the brand the leader in the caffeinated malt beverage category, Long said

“We are making progress transforming our brand mix to higher-value brands,”
he said. “Including Foster’s, our worthmore organic volume is up near double digits based on brand volume from prior year. With Sparks, our worthmore volume growth is well into the teens.”

Long also pointed out that Miller is dedicating resources to maximize its heritage and legacy brands. For example, the “Take Back the High Life” campaign has significantly slowed the decline of Miller High Life.

Those initiatives are all part of Miller’s five year strategy. Long went through that plan’s six basic thrusts:

* Increase Miller Lite’s share of the light category.

* Strengthen the worthmore brand portfolio

* Maximize heritage/legacy brands.

* Improve the value add with distributors, including a recent managed freight program.

* Reduce operating costs

* Empower the organization, including increasing the authority of field-based general managers to make decisions and holding them accountable to deliver against an agreed P&L.

Miller is “sharply focused on getting back to contributing to the growth of the overall group (SABMiller),” said Gary Leibowitz, senior vice president of investor relations for SABMiller.

For an archived version of the audiocast of the SABMiller presentation (of which Long's speech was a part), go here. The slide presentation also is available.

Beer Business Daily covered the speech here.