Annual Report 2011 - 2012 - United Breweries Limited

Your Company is implementing several operational improvement projects that will ensure that it remains competitive, in
the market place and in costs, and will manage the business even more dynamically.
In view of the positive prospects, your Company is setting up Greenfield Breweries in Patna (Bihar) and Nanjangud
(Karnataka). The brewery at Nanjangud is expected to be commissioned shortly and the brewery in Bihar is likely to be
operational sometime during the financial year ending March 31, 2014. In addition, your Company will continue to
invest towards increasing capacity and upgradation of its existing breweries.
Through these actions, your Directors are hopeful that your Company would achieve a sustained leadership position,
grow ahead of the market and realize a structural improvement in profitability in the years to come.
SUSTAINABILITY & SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
Report of the Directors (contd.)
There are four facets of sustainability that United Breweries Limited has built initiatives around:
1. Reduction in carbon footprint, to ensure a better planet for the generations to come
2. Water conservation, critical in a country that is listed as drinking-water deficient
3. Positively impacting stake-holders that reside around our breweries
4. Helping farmers who are part of the value chain get better net remuneration for their produce
Carbon footprint reduction
Your Company has set itself an aggressive target on reducing specific energy consumption (as well as controlling energy
cost). The manufacturing team continues to reduce energy by 5 -10% in use through efficiency improvement and
innovative solution/technologies. Your Company is now proud to mention that all but a couple of its breweries use
biomass/agri-waste boilers for generating steam, as part of if its campaign to progress renewable energy. The newer
breweries have already installed solar energy based street lighting and lower carbon generating LED lights. Several
breweries have now begun recovering heat from wort boiling.
Water conservation
After ensuring that all breweries now consume less than 5 kl/kl water, your Company has embarked on an aggressive
initiative to bring water consumption down to a world class level of 3.5 kl/kl. Contemporary waste water treatment
systems have been installed, to allow recycling of water into designated parts of the brewery. Several breweries have
now touched levels of 4 kl/kl in consumption and your Company continues to drive water consumption down by almost
10% each year. In addition to this, rain water harvesting (RWH) has been taken up in select breweries that use ground
water, so as to minimize depletion of water table.
Impacting stakeholders in villages
Two agricultural universities have now certified that our treated waste water can be used productively for crops. This is
the outcome of a joint effort between the breweries and those universities, with tests being conducted within brewery
premises. This certification will allow us to provide water for growing crops all the year round to villagers. It has been
proven that the productivity of some crops is much higher with this water. At some breweries, your Company initiated
organic farming as well as testing growing of barley.
Helping farmers
Your Company has now expanded contract farming activities in Haryana through its associates and has also embarked
on providing its own patented seeds for 6 row barley growing in new states like Uttar Pradesh, traditionally known for
growing low quality varieties of feed barley. These initiatives not just help us assure availability in our supply chain but
also help farmers increase productivity on their meager lands and assure remunerative prices for their produce.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Your Company views Corporate Social Responsibility not as philanthropy but as a form of sustained partnership with the
goal to generate long term value for all stakeholders. We believe it is our responsibility to contribute to the improvement
of the society around us and our breweries, which in a country like India is translated into a focus on basic necessities
of life. We focus CSR efforts on four areas: Potable Water Management, Contract Farming, Primary Health and Welfare,
and Primary Education.
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Each of these initiatives aim at creating long-term value and having a deep impact on the lives of those involved. With
each of it addressing a very specific yet basic need of the communities, it ensures a rise in the overall quality of life of
the local population in and around our breweries. To ensure better implementation and sustained success of these