Suntory rises to 3rd in beer product market
TOKYO —
Suntory Ltd took third place in Japan’s beer and quasi-beer shipments in January-June for the first time ever on a half-year basis, beating Sapporo Breweries Ltd, industry data revealed Thursday. Suntory’s shipments in the six-month period came rose 10.8% from a year before to 28,143,000 cases, lifting its market share to a record 13%.
By contrast, shipments by Sapporo fell 12.4% to 26,164,000 cases, reducing its share to 12.1%. As a result, Sapporo slipped to fourth place. Asahi Breweries Ltd was top, with a market share of 37.5%, while Kirin Holdings Co ranked second, with 36.7%.
Of five major beer brewers in Japan, Suntory was the only one to boost shipments in January-June.
Suntory’s strong performance reflects its decision to put off price hikes of its mainstay can products till September while other beer makers raised their prices amid higher prices of raw materials such as barley and aluminum cans.
Suntory is a latecomer to Japan’s beer product market, launching sales in 1963. It may now bring forward its goal of generating profit in the beer business for the first time in 2009.
Suntory Managing Director Yasunori Aiba said the company hopes to put its beer business in the black as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Sapporo President Masaru Fukunaga said price differences between beers had greater-than-expected effects on sales results.
With summer just around the corner, competition looks set to heat up.
Overall domestic shipments of beer and quasi-beer products in January-June fell 4.2% from the same period last year to a record low of 216,728,000 cases.
At Sapporo, shipments of mainstay products such as “Ebisu” beer were down considerably.
Sapporo’s fall from third place is an additional blow to its parent, Sapporo Holdings Ltd, which is facing an unsolicited takeover proposal from its top shareholder, U.S. investment fund Steel Partners Japan Strategic Fund (Offshore) LP.
In a letter sent to Sapporo Holdings on Tuesday, Steel Partners harshly criticized the company, saying that its management is “neither fit nor capable.”
JCN
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8 Comments
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0
sabinuki
Quasi-beer is an offensive word and an offensive product.
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dany505
sabinuki,
how is it offensive?
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sabinuki
Offensive as in it hurts my eyes and tastebuds.
Such disgusting filth would be unthinkable if this country had any taste or common sense for that matter.
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Sarge
Suntory may be third now, but they're still losing money.
I have to go with sabi on this - that "quasi-beer" stuff is nasty.
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zaichik
I guess my departure from Japan has caused Yebisu sales to drop :-)
I'm surprised that Suntory has captured third place, though - I really don't think much of their beer....
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Altria
Which beers does Suntory make?
Kirin should recieve a huge fine for unleashing Nodogoshi Nama on the unsuspecting population.
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rajakumar
Way to go Suntory.
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taj
Suntory Premium = good stuff.
Quasi-beer = Pure Evil. I recently met with some fresh arrivals from the US, who were bemoaning the utter vileness of Japanese beer. It didn't take long to figure out that they hadn't yet even tried Japanese beer. They'd been buying the cheapest stuff looks like beer stuff at the conveni. Ewwww!
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