Jebsen Group (Jebsen), a leading marketing and distribution organisation for premium products, recently announced that its beverage business has overseen a 60 percent year-on-year growth in sales of Blue Girl Beer in China in 2011.
This growth is largely the result of Jebsen Beer’s continued investment in the brand particularly in Southern China, where up-and-coming markets are expected to drive double-digit growth this year.
Acquired by Jebsen more than 100 years ago and currently the leading beer by volume and value with more than 20 percent market share in Hong Kong, Blue Girl Beer re-entered the highly competitive and fragmented China beer market in 2008, where it has achieved a threefold increase in sales volume. While annual growth of the general Chinese beer market has remained stable at approximately five per cent, growth of the premium beer segment is still robust, at around 10 percent for the last several years. In response to the huge potential of the premium beer segment and in particular, rising demand for imported beer in second-tier provinces and cities where economic growth is evident, Jebsen Beer has over the past two years identified and entered new markets in Southern China, having achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in these markets.
"Recent economic prosperity in second-tier markets has resulted in the rising Chinese middle class more willing to spend on premium products, including alcohol," said Michael Glover, Director of Jebsen Beer and head of the Group’s beverage business.
Research done by Jebsen Beer has shown that Chinese consumers prefer beer that is lighter on the palate, thus, in catering to local tastes, an optimised taste for Blue Girl Beer has been developed in 2010 particularly for the Chinese market. "The unique positioning of Blue Girl Beer as an imported beer with a strong German brewing heritage, as well as our good understanding of market tastes, is resonating well with these emerging beer markets," Glover added.