Fosters may be Australia's best known beer globally, but if Lion Nathan has its way, Little Creatures will ride the global boom in craft beers, as it uses the brand to spearhead a push offshore.
Controlled by Japan's Kirin Holdings, Lion took full control of Little Creatures five years ago as part of a move further into the craft beer sector.
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It now has Little Creatures bars in Hong Kong and Shanghai, for example, with more moves afoot and it is already being sold in 15 countries outside of Australia and New Zealand, five of them in Asia
Sales of most mainstream beer labels remain under pressure from craft beers, which Lion is working to counter by lifting its line-up of craft beers, especially now that it no longer handles a range of imported labels, such as Corona and Stella Artois.
These labels have shifted back to CUB as part of a split of brands globally following the Anheuser-Busch InBev merger with SAB Miller.
This loss of labels cut Lion's share of the market to around 39 per cent compared with CUB's 47 per cent, forcing Lion to focus more narrowly on its core portfolio of Lion and Kirin brands for growth.
"The high-value craft beers remains a key focus," the Lion chief executive, Stuart Irvine said.
"James Squire and Little Creatures are delivering solid growth and the acquisitions we have made this year in both Australia and New Zealand will only increase this momentum. We are now also taking these brands across the region."
In volume terms Lion said it "performed slightly better" than the market in volume terms, and it had continued to build its local craft brewery line-up with the purchase of Byron Bay Brewery and it is to build a new micro brewery at the Imperial Hotel, Eumundi, to revive the Eumundi brand.
Similarly, in New Zealand, Lion bought Panhead Custom ales, billed as one of the 10 fastest-growing brews in the craft ale sector there, while it also finished an upgrade for Emerson's while working to revitalise the Mac's portfolio. However the weak New Zealand dollar pressured earnings, it said. This helped group revenues there to rise 5 per cent even though volumes sold rose just 1 per cent.
With its dairy and drinks arm, the decision to axe a number of low-margin products hit revenues as part of a broader restructuring helped to lift underlying earnings as it enters the final stages of a three-year turnaround.
In particular, flavoured milks such as its Dare iced coffee continued to grow as did its yoghurt line-up, both of which are "priority dairy categories".
In south-east Asia, the group achieved 30 per cent growth in its yoghurt business, emerging as the largest yoghurt producer in Singapore.
The net profit for the year to September rose $11.7 million to $280.1 million, but with pre-tax earnings flat.