Japan: Asahi’s beer sales up in June but still lower in the first half of this year

Japan’s Asahi Breweries said on June, 13 its total domestic beer sales increased by 5.5% to 233,771 kl in June 2010. January – June beer sales dropped by 3.9% to 974,197 kl.

Low-malt happoshu beer saw the biggest decrease in demand – minus 24.2% in June and minus 31.8% in the first half of this year. Sales of ordinary beer grew by 3.1% in June and dropped by 4.6% in January - June, whereas new genre malt-based beer enjoyed a 42.2% growth last month and a 25.5% growth in the first six months of 2010.

Clear Asahi was the only brand to see increase in demand both in June and in the January – June period of 2010. Sales of Style Free grew by 2.8 in June, whereas Super Dry and Asahi Off saw flat sales volume as compared to the same month in 2009. Super Dry, Style Free and Asahi Off all registered lower sales in January – June, minus 5.7, 3.9 and 10.7 per cent respectively.

14 July, 2010