THE OWNER of Miller beer plans to stop brewing the lager in the Republic when it ends a contract with the Heineken-owned Beamish Crawford in April.

SABMiller, which owns the Miller genuine draft, Pilsner Urquell and Peroni Nastro Azzurro brands, said yesterday that it is ending its brewing, sales and distribution deal for its flagship brand with Cork-based Beamish Crawford on April 30th.

The move means that it will stop brewing Miller genuine draft in this country. The company intends contracting the brewing operation to another European player outside Ireland. A spokesman said yesterday that it intends announcing details of the new brewing contract shortly.

Dublin-headquartered specialist, Richmond Marketing, has won the sales and distribution contract for Miller genuine draft.

It is already selling and distributing Pilsner Urquell and Peroni Nastro Azzurro for SABMiller in the Republic.

Miller sells 200,000 hectolitres - 35.2 million pints – a year in the Republic. The move is a significant deal for Richmond, which has sales and distribution contracts for brands such as Red Bull, Volvic mineral water and Kopparberg cider.

Late last year, Cork-based Heineken Ireland took over rival and near neighbour, Beamish Crawford, and announced that it would centralise all brewing operations in its Lady’s Well facility in the northside of the city.

The move resulted in the loss of 120 Beamish Crawford jobs.

A SABMiller spokesman said yesterday that its decision to drop the contract with Beamish Crawford was not connected with the takeover by Heineken, and pointed out that the deal had been under review before the merger was announced.

Heineken’s takeover of Beamish was the result of a carve up of its parent, Scottish Newcastle between multinational giants, Netherlands-based Heineken NV and Danish player Carlsberg in a €10 billion deal.

Both the European and Irish competition watchdogs had to approve the transaction before it could be completed last October. At the time, Heineken said it was in talks to maintain the Miller brewing and licensing deal.