WITH Foster's now sold to overseas interests, few traditional brands remain in Australian hands, writes KATE DOWLER
Coopers, RM Williams and Four'N Twenty Pies. They are a few of a dying breed - iconic Australian-owned brands.
News that beer maker Foster's has fallen into the hands of international mega-brewer SABMiller has proved hard to swallow for those with local interests in mind.
The takeover means just 5 per cent of this nation's brewing market is locally owned. But some, such as South Australian brewer Coopers, consider the long-expected sale of Foster's - the maker of VB and Carlton Draught - an opportunity.
Coopers enters its 150th year as the largest remaining Australian-owned brewer. Managing director Tim Cooper said that was a badge of honour.
"Coopers currently has about 4 per cent of the Australian beer market, but we see the fact that we remain Australian-owned will provide us with strong marketing opportunities in the future," he said.
Coopers would continue to maintain its independence, he said, a position it underlined by withstanding a takeover bid from Lion Nathan in 2005.
AusBuy, the lobby group for locally-owned companies, said Australia was selling its ability to create future wealth. The sale of Foster's represented the latest in a long line of iconic Australian-owned food or beverage brands bought by foreign interests, chief executive Lynne Wilkinson said.
"If Australia continues selling its wealth-creating assets, we'll have little ability to pay off rising foreign debts," she said.
Ms Wilkinson said successive governments had played to the mantra of a level playing field. "A level playing field doesn't exist anywhere but in our own minds and for that we're paying dearly," she said.
Ms Wilkinson said governments' failure to enforce proper food-labelling laws made it hard for Australian-owned businesses to thrive.
Predatory global companies were looking for bargains to extract wealth from, she said.
Only a few major Australian-owned food brands remain, such as Sanitarium, Bega and Bulla, she said.
Ms Wilkinson blamed a lack of clear thinking about the national interest and a lack of reinvestment for the trend.
Australian Shareholders Association director Stephen Mayne said Australia lacked an entrepreneurial culture and failed to celebrate local success.
"Our economy might be in great shape but the weakest point is the amount of foreign ownership we have. If it wasn't for that we could be in the top 10 (wealthiest) in the world," he said.
"Growing businesses is difficult here; entrepreneur is almost a dirty word after the Alan Bond era, and we have some of the toughest unions, personal income taxes are high and we have a brain-drain where we can produce the people of the right calibre to run top companies but we can't hang on to those companies."
One company that bucked the trend is Bairnsdale's Patties Foods.
Eight years ago it bought the Four'N Twenty Pies brand from the US's Simplot.
Patties general manager marketing Mark Connolly said investment, sponsorships, innovation, and a focus on quality, taste and value, meant Four'N Twenty's business had doubled since.
He said consumers preferred to buy Australian-owned. But a lack of clarity about what was Australian-owned hampered their ability to choose.
