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Japan, Tokyo: Kirin Brewery Co announced on January 13 it will join three other major Japanese breweries (Suntory, Sapporo and Asahi) this spring in offering a product known as "the third-category beer," a beer-tasting alcoholic beverage that is in a lower tax bracket because of its ingredients. “The last of the nation's four major brewers to enter the market, Kirin will release its third beer by spring,” President Koichiro Aramaki told a news conference on January 13. Kirin said it predicts a 9% fall in sales volumes of regular beer and happoshu to 162m cases this year. Including the new product, however, Kirin said it expects a 2.1% rise in total beer sales to 181.7m cases. The brewer said it sold 178m cases of beer and happoshu in 2004, down 2.8% from a year earlier.

Only last week, industry leader Asahi Breweries Ltd. announced plans to roll out its own version by summer.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd.'s pea-based Draft One, which made its nationwide debut in February, has been a smash hit. In 2004, the brewer sold 18 million cases, each containing 20 633-milliliter bottles, nearly doubling its initial target. By December, sales of Suntory Ltd.'s Super Blue-happoshu mixed with barley-based shochu spirits-had reached 5.8 million cases since its introduction in June.

The new products from Kirin and Asahi will likely be classified as “miscellaneous alcoholic drinks,” meaning they contain no malt. The beverages are expected to retail for between 110 yen and 120 yen per 350-ml can at supermarkets and other large stores. Suntory and Sapporo are not taking the challenge lying down, Asahi News commented.

Sapporo announced Tuesday it has set a sales target of 22 million cases for Draft One in 2005, an increase of about 21 percent from the previous year. The brewer plans a sales campaign next month that will target women and young people who have never tried Draft One. The company will offer 100,000 consumers the chance to try the drink free of charge.

Also on Tuesday, Suntory announced plans to shift 10 million cases of Super Blue this year, up about 72 percent from 2004. The company said it will tweak the Super Blue formula by doubling the amount of malt and substituting wheat spirits for barley-based shochu.

The beer-like beverage accounted for about 5% of sales of beer and the like in 2004, underlying a growing demand for the new beverage, said Kirin President Koichiro Aramaki. Similar in taste to beer, third beer, some of which is made from legumes such as peas, is cheaper than beer because it sidesteps taxes levied on beverages that contain more malt. The liquor tax on a 350-milliliter can of third beer is about 53 yen less than regular beer and about 22 yen less than happoshu low-malt beverages. Industry officials say happoshu will end up the big loser from the rush of lower-priced rivals.



15 January, 2005