Japan: Suntory Holdings to stop producing and selling low-malt happoshu quasi-beer

Suntory Holdings Ltd. plans to stop producing and selling happoshu, the low-malt quasi-beer, becoming the first major brewer to exit the happoshu market, Daily Yomiuri reported on July, 21.

The firm finished producing its core happoshu product, MD Golden Dry, in June, and all of its happoshu products should disappear from stores by autumn.

Suntory was the first company to start selling happoshu with its Hop's Nama in 1994. Happoshu became popular thanks to its price, which is lower than beer because it contains less than 67 percent malt. But the happoshu market began shrinking in 2003 when "third-category beer", which mainly contains ingredients other than malt and is even cheaper than happoshu, was launched.

Regarding Suntory's shipments of beer and beer-like beverages in the first half of 2012, it sold 470,000 cases of happoshu, which is 40.4 percent down from the same period last year, and happoshu accounted for only 1.6 percent of shipping volume. One case is equivalent to twenty 633-liter bottles.

Though other breweries, including Kirin Brewery Co., will keep producing and selling happoshu, the market appears to be shrinking.

With the move, Suntory seems to be intensively allocating funds to its premium beer, including The Premium Malt's.

25 July, 2012