Japan: Kirin Brewery estimates domestic January-June beer sales climbed 11%

Kirin Brewery Co. estimates that its domestic beer sales in the January-June period climbed about 11% on year to 86 million cases, a company executive said July 03, Dow Jones Newswires released the same day.

Senji Miyake, president of Kirin's beer, wine and spirits division, told a group of reporters that the company expects its beer sales to have grown on year for the first time in seven years. Miyake traced the double-digit increase to the strength of its hit product, "Kirin Nodogoshi," a low-priced beer it introduced last year.

Nodogoshi is one of several competing products in a new category of beer that Japanese brewers created to get around tax rules. Dubbed "the third beer," Nodogoshi and other rival products take advantage of lower taxes on beer made from non-malt ingredients. The market for such beer in Japan has grown quickly and now makes up about 16% of the entire beer market.
But Miyake declined to comment if Kirin's market share exceeded that of archrival Asahi Breweries.

July 03, at 0407 GMT, Kirin shares were up 1.1% at Y1,818 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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