• Wall Street Journal, Friday, September 17, 2010 10:46 AM

At a London conference this week, beer giant SABMiller PLC announced a shift away from decentralization in order to increase sales and profits from existing operations. Top managers in its 75 countries were told to focus on sales and marketing, writes David Kesmodel.

Executives at SABMiller, which makes Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch and Águila, among other beers, will concentrate on building brands and gaining shelf space. The move reflects few opportunities left to grow through acquisitions after a flurry of mergers and acquisitions that took place in the past several years.

SABMiller and other beer giants are trying to build on the strong sales-volume growth they're seeing in emerging economies such as China, while adjusting prices and trimming costs to offset slower growth or declines in markets such as the U.S. and much of Europe.

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