Changing tastes favour these two

Article Excerpt

Consumers are increasingly switching to higher priced wines and beers. That’s good news for Molson Coors and Andrew Peller (see box), as these premium brands are more profitable than their regular products. That gives both companies plenty of room to keep raising their dividends. MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. (Toronto symbols TPX.A $91 and TPX.B $91; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 185.0 million; Market cap: $16.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.molson coors.com) merged its U.S. brewing operations with those of rival SABMiller in July 2008 to form MillerCoors. Each company has a 50% voting interest in this joint venture, but Miller gets 58% of the profits, while Molson Coors gets 42%. Since the merger, MillerCoors has saved roughly $1 billion by combining plants and distribution networks (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). In the quarter ended June 30, 2015, lower raw material, packaging and fuel costs increased the…