Carlsberg affirms Vietnam as key market

Carlsberg Group, one of the leading brewery groups in the world, will continue to target Vietnam as one of its key markets in Asia to cash in on the lucrative local beer market.

"With the average annual consumption rate of 33 litres, against Denmark’s 80 litres, Vietnam remains our firm’s key long-term investment destination in the coming years. Carlsberg Vietnam invested $100 million in the local market over the past four years, mostly in the Huda and Tuborg brands in its Hue and Hanoi plants," said Tayfun Uner, CEO of Carlsberg Vietnam.

Asia accounts for almost 40 per cent of global beer consumption, and makes up 28 per cent of Carlsberg Group’s operating profit.

Carlsberg Vietnam is planning to make new product designs as a way to boost its footprint in the local beer market.

Late last week, the company officially introduced the new design for Huda. The outstanding new look is brought on as Huda’s strong commitment to rewarding consumers with a high-class drinking experience, offering consistent high quality, therefore inspiring the people of Central Vietnam by their hometown’s quintessence and specialties.

A well-known brand of excellence and high-quality over the past 27 years, Huda continues to impress consumers with its dynamic and modern image. The bottle neck and front labels were inspired by Central Royal architectural elements like the “window,” which represents the Citadel’s dragon scale pattern. The bottle’s silver colour expresses the freshness and premium quality of the Huda brand and creates a perfect harmony with the green color which enhances its elegant look.

“The launch of the new Huda cans and bottles marks a milestone and plays a crucial role in Carlsberg Vietnam’s strategy in affirming our position in Central Vietnam as a dynamic company, always leading and grasping the latest trends in the competitive beer industry for meeting domestic as well as foreign consumer demand. This also shows the company’s commitment to pursue perfection in brewing every day to better serve our consumers,” said Tayfun.

At the same event, Carlsberg Vietnam also announced that Huda and Huda Gold were granted Silver and Gold medals at the Berlin International Beer Competition in Germany in March 2017.

In addition to Huda, the Tuborg brand will receive a new design soon. Carlsberg has invested $20 million in the production of Tuborg in April 2016 to boost its presence in  North Vietnam. The consumption of this new product was estimated at eight million litres in 2016.

Beside the new designs, Carlsberg will expand in the northern region by increasing its stake in Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage JSC (Habeco). Habeco, in which the state holds an 82 per cent interest, has an annual total production capacity of 800 million litres of beer, ranking among the top three domestic beer producers.

"We are still waiting on the government to greenlight our expansion plans," Tayfun added.

Penetrating the Vietnamese beer market as one of the first Danish multi-national investors in 1993, Carlsberg Vietnam’s market share has increased to 10.8 per cent from 7.1 per cent in 2012, snatching the fourth place.

Since 2012, after acquiring a 100 per cent stake in Hue Brewery Limited (HBL) in 2011, the market leader in Central Vietnam, Carlsberg Vietnam increased investment in the Huda beer plant in Thua Thien-Hue by five-fold, thus increasing its market share in the northern central region running from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien-Hue from 46 to 54 per cent.

In particular, the firm invested $60 million in the facility in 2014 to expand its capacity from 250 to 370 million litres a year. In 2016, it also spent $10 million in a canned assembly line at the plant with a daily capacity of 50,000 barrels.

Carlsberg Vietnam’s lineup include Carlsberg, Tuborg, Huda, Huda Gold, Halida, and Beerlao.

Currently, Carlsberg’s major products in the northern central region are Huda and Huda Gold, accounting for 80 per cent of the firm’s total consumption volume. In the north, Carlsberg, Tuborg, and Halida are the firm’s main products.

The Vietnamese beer market, which beer consumption jumped about 40 per cent in 2015 from 2010 to 3.4 billion litres, and reached 3.8 billion litres in 2016 with its citizens of legal drinking age, 18 and above, is luring many other international brewers.

Sabeco, brewer of Saigon Beer and 333 Beer, is the largest brewer with 46 per cent of the market. Amsterdam-based Heineken ranks second with over 20 per cent, followed by Habeco’s 17.3 per cent.

Heineken, Ab-Inbev, SABMiller, Asahi, Kirin Holdings, Singha, Thai Beverage, and Shingha are queuing up to buy into state-owned Saigon Beer Alcohol and Beverage Corp. (Sabeco), while Carlsberg is waiting to buy into Habeco.

By Bich Thuy / VIR