A-B will boost Budweiser’s availability to 200 county-level cities in China starting this year, doubling its presence from 100 now, the company said in an
e-mailed statement. Counties are China’s smallest cities.

A-B also is extending its Harbin beer to 33 new cities in China, along with its imported Corona beer from Mexico, to attract drinkers willing to pay more for overseas brands. A-B is focused on China to reduce its dependence on the U.S., where it gets 65 percent of volume and growth has slowed to about 1 percent a year.
The St. Louis brewer and other companies “are trying to move into the emerging markets and really establish their brands,” said Tom Leritz, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management in Clayton. A-B is anticipating “the time when people in those regions become wealthy enough … to buy more beer.”

China contributed 45 percent of the growth in international beer volume over the last five years, according to A-B, which operates 14 breweries in China. Last year, A-B’s volume and profits grew at double-digit rates in China.

International brewers are again targeting China’s high-end market after efforts to sell more expensive beers failed in the 1990s, when most drinkers preferred cheaper local brands. SABMiller PLC, the world’s sixth-biggest brewer, plans to introduce its Miller brand in China.

China is the world’s largest beer market with 244 million barrels in 2005, according to data by Canadean Ltd. The U.S. is the second-largest at 208 million barrels.

China’s beer sales jumped 16 percent to $10.8 billion in 2006, as rising affluence and increased marketing spurred consumption. Per capita consumption of the beverage will double to 50 liters a year in the next decade from 25 now, Anheuser-Busch forecast. Legal Chinese beer drinkers consume only about one-fourth the quantities U.S. drinkers consume, according to London-based Euromonitor International.

A-B will integrate its Budweiser and Harbin brands, combining promotional budgets, sales and research efforts to make them nationwide brands.

The company acquired century-old Harbin, China’s fifth-biggest brewer, in 2005, and has a 27 percent stake in Tsingtao Brewery Co., China’s biggest brewer.

A-B’s competitors also are moving into China. SABMiller, which makes Pilsner Urquell and Peroni Nastro Azzurro, has been buying companies in China and India to expand. Its China Resources Snow Breweries Co. venture last year beat Tsingtao to become the nation’s biggest brewer by sales.

Carlsberg A/S, the Danish brewer planning to invest as much as $880 million in Asia in the next three years, is seeking acquisitions in China’s eastern regions to help it expand 15 percent annually in the country, Senior Vice President Jesper Madsen said in November.

FOSHAN, Guangdong: US-based Anheuser-Busch, one of the world’s leading beer makers, yesterday announced it will build a brewery in this Pearl River Delta city.

With an initial investment of $63 million, construction of the brewery will begin next month and is set for completion late next year.

The project will be capable of yielding 2.6 million hectoliters annually at the initial stage. Sufficient room has been set aside for future expansion.

The brands to be brewed at the facility are Budweiser, Bud Ice, Budweiser Ultra and Budweiser Genuine Draft as well as Harbin premium brands for the domestic market.

“As one of the largest-volume and fastest growing beer markets in the world, China remains one of our most important international priorities,” said August A. Busch, president and CEO of Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.

“The Foshan brewery will allow us to increase the availability of Budweiser and Harbin premium brands in China, where the premium and super-premium categories are growing faster than the rest of the industry and have tremendous long-term potential.”

He said the new facility is part of Anheuser-Busch’s strategy to position itself more favorably for future growth in China. It will help to promote Budweiser as a leading international premium beer while expanding Harbin’s premium brands outside Northeast China and partner with Tsingtao Brewery Company to strengthen its position as a leading brewer in China.

Anheuser-Busch aims to double Budweiser’s distribution across the nation over the next five years by expanding to 100 new cities each with a population of over 1 million where it aims to have another 150 million Budweiser drinkers. It also aims to introduce Harbin premium brands to 33 new markets in China this year.

The Foshan facility is Anheuser-Busch’s second self-invested brewery in China. Its first one was in Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province, in 1995. The Wuhan brewery has an annual production capacity of 4.2 million hectoliters, four times the initial design capacity.

(China Daily 04/04/2007 page14)

“Budweiser has been supporting Chinese sports team and events in China for a long time and we are pleased to have Budweiser on board again for the 2004 Olympics,” said Li Furong, vice-minister of the State Sports General Administration of China. 2004 will mark the third time Bud has been named the official beer of the Chinese team, after 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Sydney.

“We hope that we can be more helpful if Beijing wins the bid to host the 2008 Olympics,” said Philips Davis, chairman of Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company Ltd. “Actually not only do I hope that Beijing wins the bid, but also that China walks away with the most medals.”