Sales of low carb beer and wines rocket

Efforts by Aussies to battle bulging bellies have led to a 250 percent increase in the sales of low carb beer brands such as Hahn Super Dry, Pure Blonde and Bondi Blonde.

Now why do you think SABMiller and Coca-Cola Amatil bought the Bluetongue microbrewery in Australia that few of us had ever heard of? Because Bluetongue Brewery produces a low carb beer, Bondi Blonde, which has every potential to become a big seller should the craze for low car beers in Australia continue unabatedly.

Foster’s Pure Blonde is the fastest-growing beer by volume in Australia and within no time has captured 5.3 percent of the national beer market, which makes it the sixth largest beer brand in Australia. A Woolworth’s spokesman said that in their liquor stores (Dan Murphy’s, BWS etc) the demand for low-carb labels was phenomenal with sales up 280 percent for South Australia and the Northern Territories in December 2007 alone.

The success of low carb beers has spilled over into other beverage categories too. Also, Foster’s new low carb sparkling wine Yellowglen Jewel – 30 percent lower in calories and 40 percent lower in alcohol – has proved a hit in the past few months, reports John Harvey from Adelaide.