Japan: Suntory aims at increasing total beer sales by 1% this year

Japan’s Suntory Beer Limited made public its business strategy for 2017 on January 10.

The company said in 2016, the total market for the beer category in Japan (including happoshu, new-genre beer, and non-alcoholic beer-type beverages) was estimated to shrink about 2% from the previous year. Under these circumstances, Suntory Beer Limited had total sales of 71.65 million cases (one case is equivalent to twenty large (633 mL) bottles), which is down 3% year-on-year, as the sales volume was in line with the market size. Sales of the beer category, excluding non-alcoholic beer-type beverages, totaled 64.61 million cases (down 3% year-on-year).

This year, the total market for the beer category in Japan and the beer market in Japan excluding the non-alcoholic beverages is forecast to shrink by about 2% from the previous year. Suntory Beer Limited said it will further bolster marketing activities related to the three core brands of The Premium Malt's, Kin-Mugi, and All-Free to stimulate new demand and provide added impetus to the beer market. Suntory Beer Limited's goal is to sell 72.7 million cases (up 1% year-on-year) with the aim of selling 65.5 million cases (up 1% year-on-year) in the beer category.

10 January, 2017