Liquor

July 2005

DOMESTIC SHARE SURVEY: Beer
Domestic shipments of beer products inched up 0.7% to 517.28 million cases (one case = 20 x 633mml bottles) in calendar 2004, with the market share rankings of the five largest brewers unchanged from the previous year. Sapporo Breweries Ltd., which enjoyed brisk sales of beer-like beverages, was the only brewer among the top five that saw its market share rise. Regular beer shipments totaled 306.55 million cases, down 1.6%, while those of low-malt beer dropped 8.1% to 185.25 million cases. Beverages with a beer-like flavor -- so-called "third beers," which debuted in 2004 -- posted shipments of 25.47 million cases. Regular beer accounted for 59.3% of the total shipments of beer products, followed by low-malt beer, at 35.8%, and third beer, at 4.9%. Asahi Breweries Ltd., which maintained top slot in the market share rankings for the fourth consecutive year, recorded almost the same level of regular and low-malt beer shipments as in 2003, although it lost market share of 0.3 percentage point to 39.6%. Kirin Brewery Co., which suffered a drop in shipments of both regular and low-malt beers, sustained the sharpest market share decline of 1.3 points, to 34.4%, among the top five. Sapporo Breweries, ranked third, saw its market share climb for the first time in three years, thanks to strong sales of its Draft One third beer, although the company suffered the steepest drop of 28.4% in low-malt beer shipments. (The Nikkei Business Daily, July 22, 2005)