Kirin hopes to sell more beer after new deal with AB-InBev

Japan’s brewer Kirin looks to AB-InBev to lift US sales of its flagship beer. Its brand Ichiban will take its place beside other priority brands in AB-InBev’s import beer line-up. In Japan, AB-InBev licenses Kirin to brew and sell Budweiser. In the US, it produces and sells Ichiban for its Japanese partner.

With their US licensing agreement up for renewal at the end of 2016, the two companies have agreed on some changes, made public in August. Under the new agreement, Kirin’s US employees will be transferred to AB-InBev, where they will form a special marketing team for Ichiban. In return, AB-InBev will get a bigger profit cut. In effect, Kirin was willing to take a smaller share of profits in exchange for what it hopes will be greater sales overall.

Kirin aims to double its beer sales in the US by 2021, after having got lost among the many beer brands that AB-InBev imports into the US.

Globally, Kirin Ichiban sells about 600,000 hl beer. In the US its sales are estimated to be 120,000 hl, giving it a tiny share of the world’s second-largest beer market.

Domestic rival Sapporo was quicker to seize on the American market’s potential and now leads in sales among Japanese brewers there, at over 250,000 hl.