The Vietnamese Beer Market

Hungry for more | With a population of more than 94 million, with a median age of 30.9 years, rising disposable income and huge popularity of beers, Vietnam has emerged as the largest Southeast Asian beer producer and consumer. Explosive growth in beer consumption has put the country on the radar of international brewers. The country’s beer market grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about seven per cent from 1999 to 2015 and reached in the proximity of four billion litres in 2016.

Braupakt, a Bavarian-Californian Collaboration

A new beer has been introduced to the market and will be sold in 32 countries around the world. The beer is a limited release offering and was conjured into existence by two legendary breweries: the Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, the oldest brewery in the world whose flagship beer is an award-winning weissbier, and US craft beer pioneer Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, whose flagship beer is an award-winning pale ale.

Now in its 10th year, the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beer poll indicates the trends, brands and breweries shaping the craft beer industry. Described as “the largest and most influential people’s choice poll in the land,” this year’s poll attracted tens of thousands of craft beer lovers to vote for their five favourite craft beers.

Data provided by Morgan Stanley shows that the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia this summer could lift beer consumption. It estimates football fans’ impact on beer consumption at two percent. As a result, it expects that Russia’s beer market would grow during 2018, for the first time in a decade. Recently Anadolu Efes reported that beer consumption dropped in the low single digits in 2017.

Tequila remains in demand. Bacardi has agreed to buy out Patron Spirits International in a deal valuing the high-end tequila maker at USD 5.1 billion. Bacardi, the world’s largest private spirits business, already owns 30 percent of Patron, which it purchased in 2008 from businessman founder John Paul DeJoria, 73, who is equally famous for co-founding the shampoo company John Paul Mitchell Systems.

AB-InBev is thirsty for your dollar and data. The world’s number one brewer has acquired the Israeli beverage analytics start-up WeissBeerger, media reported on 26 January 2018.

As could be expected, Asahi only managed to dispose of its 20 percent stake in the country’s number three brewer Tsingtao by putting it back into Chinese hands. In December 2017, it sold its holding to the conglomerate Fosun Group and Tsingtao itself for USD 941 million.

Better Together

Collaborations | Looks like we have all become communitarians. These days we like to share cars, flats, clothes, food and sometimes partners. As if latching onto the Sharing Economy zeitgeists even profit-driven Big Brewers are suddenly raving about partnerships and doing collaborations. Is this the dawn of a new era, or are these just verbal smoke bombs meant to nullify the relevance of ownership and independence? After all, if the Big Brewers can convincingly appropriate the spirit and practices of craft beer, what’s the point of difference between them and the small guys?

For AB-InBev, it may just be a measure to stop cheaper parallel imports of its brands. But the antitrust body of the European Commission disagrees. On 30 November 2017 the European Commission informed AB-InBev of its preliminary view that the company has abused its dominant position on the Belgian beer market, by hindering cheaper imports of its Jupiler and Leffe beers from the Netherlands and France into Belgium.

As Chinese beer consumers continue to trade up, imported beers have risen in popularity next to domestic high-end brands. Observers say the import segment of the Chinese beer market already controls four percent.