E-Malt.com News article: 3719

Japan: Japanese brewery, Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. (President: Koichiro Aramaki), announced on November 24, 2004 that it concluded a contract with Dalian Daxue Brewery (Pulandian, Dalian City, Liaoning Province: President: Wang Mingrui) for the capital-affiliation ties on October 21, 2004. Under the contract, Kirin Brewery will purchase new shares to be issued by the Chinese brewer for 300 million yuan (about ¥3.87 billion 1 ). As a result, Kirin Brewery will acquire 25% of all outstanding shares in Dalian Daxue Brewery.

Dalian Daxue Brewery is located in the city of Dalian, an area where a large number of foreign businesses are actively operating. The Chinese brewer's beer sales are estimated to surge by 30% over the previous year in 2004 to about 185,000 kl, making it the second largest beer producer in Liaoning Province. The company has sold beer under the brand of “Daxue.” It also has another new brand, called “Daxue Draft” at premium price since 2003.

With the partnership with Dalian Daxue Brewery, Kirin Brewery will introduceits internationally renowned beer-brewing and quality-control technologies in order for Dalian Daxue to strengthen its competitiveness in product quality. Moreover, Kirin will cooperate with Dalian Daxue in enhancing their brand marketing for Daxue, Daxue Draft and Kirin brands to build their sustainable competitive advantage in the competitive market.

Kirin Brewery sees the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the three northeastern provinces as strategically important markets. In the Pearl River Delta, Kirin's business operations have been led by Zhuhai Kirin President Brewery Co., Ltd. (Jiu Zhou Road Jida, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province), a joint venture with Uni-President Enterprises Corp. In the Yangtze River Delta, Kirin Brewery is considering the launch of new business operations.

China is the largest beer market with an estimated sales volume of 25.1 million kl in 20032 . With its latest contract with Dalian Daxue, the Kirin group will continue to enhance its market position considerably by maximizing the effects of group synergy.

Kirin Brewery is building global business network by forming strategic partnership with other major brewers. At a time when the world beer industry has been undergoing rapid realignment, Kirin Brewery places an emphasis on the Asia and Oceania region as priority market areas. Kirin is thus prepared to consider forming further business ties with strategic partners in the areas to strengthen its business platform for sustainable growth of Kirin brands.


24 November, 2004