China & Portugal: Fresh business opportunities created by rapid rise of premium beer in China – CEO of Portugal’s Super Bock Group

The rapid rise of premium beer and craft breweries has created fresh business opportunities in China, the largest beer market in the world, as local drinkers pay more attention to superior quality and exclusivity, CEO of Portuguese brewing company Super Bock Group has said.

Rui Lopes Ferreira told Xinhua in a recent interview that he has observed an expansion in China's premium beer market, thanks to the shift in retail consumption online due to COVID-19, a change in consumers' taste preference, and rising purchasing power in the country of 1.4 billion people.

"The Chinese beer market has shown amazing figures. But it's important to note that in total it has been declining," Ferreira noted. "There is a trend of premiumization, which obviously we want to explore and take profit."

"Our brand is positioned as a premium imported brand, and we can leverage the rise of this segment," said the CEO.

According to the China Beer Market Study 2021 by MarketResearch.com, China is the world's largest beer market by sales, with an annual consumption of almost 45.7 billion litres.

However, the market for mainstream beer is becoming saturated, said the report. While beer remains the top alcoholic beverage consumed in the country, consumption has been falling since 2014.

Currently, Chinese Baijiu (distilled spirits) is still the beverage of choice for the country, while the affinity for premium and flavored beer is rising rapidly, said the report.

"Also, we see a lot of craft breweries emerging and developing in all regions in China," he said. "We believe this trend will stay in the near future, and we will explore our opportunities and develop our brand based on this vision."

Based in the city of Porto, Super Bock Group was established in 1890 and maintains a leading position in the global beer market. Super Bock was launched in 1927 as a quality beer brand.

In China, the group operates in a joint venture with local importer and distributor Xiamen Bock.

"We are paying a lot of attention to Chinese consumer trends and habits in the regions where we are currently operating. We try to provide the best experience to Chinese consumers and make innovation in order to fit with their expectations for a premium international lager beer," Ferreira added.

He said that in the near term, the company's core business would remain in the two provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang. "We will keep focusing on these two regions and developing our brand as a premium imported brand and a respected brand in the Chinese market."

The company, one of Portugal's top beer brewers, recently announced its partnership with the Montreux Jazz Festival China, which takes place in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province, from Oct. 5 to 8 under the theme "When West Meets East."

"Our strategy is clearly to reinforce our connection and our link with music. We believe that music provides very interesting and enriching experiences for consumers. That (also) reinforces our brand values such as conviviality and friendship," said the CEO.

Super Bock has supported music festivals in Portugal and around the globe such as Rock in Rio for many years, Ferreira said, including the original and renowned Montreux Jazz Festival held every summer in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva.

In Portugal, the brand has held the Super Bock Festival every year for more than 25 years.

Asked about the impact from COVID-19 on the business outlook, Ferreira said that "our activity has suffered during 2020 and also during 2021." In 2020, he added, "in Portugal our domestic and core market beer consumption decreased by 15% in total."

"I believe there will be a strong recovery in 2022. On top of that, we have benefited from the fact that we export to more than 50 countries in the world," he said.

On Aug. 23, Portugal moved from a "state of calamity," the country's highest response to a national emergency, to the "state of contingency," shortly after its health minister announced that Portugal has reached its target of fully vaccinating 70 percent of the population against COVID-19 in August.

"2022 is not going to recover to the levels of 2019, the pre-pandemic year. But I think we will be quite close to it by the end of 2023," Ferreira said.

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