Japan: With the new �third beer�, Gubinama, Asahi aims to push back Kirin's advance

Asahi Breweries Ltd. announced another "third beer", opening the tap on product development, Asahi News informed on April 6.

Gubinama is Asahi's latest counter-offensive to keep Kirin Brewery Co. from overtaking it as the leader in annual sales of beer and beer-like beverages. While Asahi leads the overall beer market on an annual basis, in January and February the brewer fell behind Kirin, which has strong third-beer sales.

Third beers contain little or no malt. They are made from such ingredients as peas and soybeans. Gubinama will debut on May 30, just over a year after Asahi launched its first third-beer product, Shin-Nama, in April 2005.

Shin-Nama did not sell well. Asahi reformulated and re-released it as Shin-Nama 3 in November. It was an unusually short development period that the company repeated with Gubinama. Asahi reduced the bitterness in Gubinama in an effort to appeal to consumers in their late 20s and 30s. Shin-Nama has not sold well in that age group. In 2001, Asahi overtook the long-time market leader Kirin based on the success of its Super Dry beer.

Kirin has regained lost ground in the overall beer market with its happoshu low-malt beer and its third-beer Nodogoshi Nama, which was launched in the same month as Asahi's Shin-Nama. In February, Kirin led Asahi in the overall beer market by more than one percentage point, according to industry sources.

Kirin sold 2.55 million cases of Nodogoshi Nama to lead the third-beer sector. One case is equivalent to 20 633-milliliter bottles. Despite the reformulation of Shin-Nama, Asahi sold a mere 1.08 million cases, putting it in fourth place in the third-beer sector.

With Gubinama, Asahi aims to meet its original third-beer sales target of 19 million cases for this year to push back Kirin's advance.