Carlsberg

[Finlaco]

Anyone knows if it’s possible to get Carlsberg beer in Bangkok at a supermarket? Several years ago it was available at Carrefour and Family Mart. Thanks in advance.

[easyride]

Pattaya is not a lot of help but I've seen ONE bar that sells a pint of draught Carlsberg for 99 baht.

[tomallison]

I beleive distribution ceased in Thailand several years ago.

[sulasno]

I thought Carlsberg is back ???

[RedNIvar]

I think they only distribute it on tap. I do not think they sell bottles or cans.

[jamora]

According to a friend of mine, who works for Carlsberg in Thailand/Hong Kong, Carlsberg do plan to bring in cans to the Thai supermarkets. Last time I talked to her, she said that they would probably give the tap beer a least a year before bringing in cans, so we should not expect anything until late 2011-2012, and yet it still depends on how well the draught beer is received on the Thai market.

Edited July 26, 2011 by jamora

[Jebhead]

I beleive distribution ceased in Thailand several years ago.

Yes, it happened round about the same time that Mr Thaksin tried to buy Liverpool FC, they were sponsored at the time by.........Carlsberg.

JH

[dddave]

The family that now produces Chang used to produce Carlsburg under license. They convinced Carlsburg to build them a nice, new state of the art brewery. Shortly after the brewery was completed, the family turned around and told Carlsburg that the production contract would not be renewed, the family then started producing Chang in quantity.

At this time: 2003, Singa had 80% of the domestic beer market. Chang deeply undercut wholesale prices,(some will remember Cathouse in Nana Plaza; all the Chang you could drink, 4-8pm for B100) put huge money into promotion and within a few years, reversed the market share figures.

Carlsburg disappeared until last year when the draft began coming in from Malaysia.

[PattayaParent]

The family that now produces Chang used to produce Carlsburg under license. They convinced Carlsburg to build them a nice, new state of the art brewery. Shortly after the brewery was completed, the family turned around and told Carlsburg that the production contract would not be renewed, the family then started producing Chang in quantity.

At this time: 2003, Singa had 80% of the domestic beer market. Chang deeply undercut wholesale prices,(some will remember Cathouse in Nana Plaza; all the Chang you could drink, 4-8pm for B100) put huge money into promotion and within a few years, reversed the market share figures.

Carlsburg disappeared until last year when the draft began coming in from Malaysia.

Half true, but not that part of it. It was Carlsberg that cancelled the licence agreement with the local production company CBTL who started a court action for damages against Carlsberg on the gounds that the notice of termination was invalid and I beleive I saw recently in the press that they were successful and were awarded damages.

[jamora]

The family that now produces Chang used to produce Carlsburg under license. They convinced Carlsburg to build them a nice, new state of the art brewery. Shortly after the brewery was completed, the family turned around and told Carlsburg that the production contract would not be renewed, the family then started producing Chang in quantity.

At this time: 2003, Singa had 80% of the domestic beer market. Chang deeply undercut wholesale prices,(some will remember Cathouse in Nana Plaza; all the Chang you could drink, 4-8pm for B100) put huge money into promotion and within a few years, reversed the market share figures.

Carlsburg disappeared until last year when the draft began coming in from Malaysia.

Half true, but not that part of it. It was Carlsberg that cancelled the licence agreement with the local production company CBTL who started a court action for damages against Carlsberg on the gounds that the notice of termination was invalid and I beleive I saw recently in the press that they were successful and were awarded damages.

The case ended with a settlement outside court were Carlsberg bought 10% of Hite Brewery South Korea, 49% of Carlsberg Hong Kong and 25% of Beer Lao for a total of USD 120mn. All these shares were acquired by Carlsberg Asia, which were a 50/50 joint venture between Carlsberg and Chang. The initial damages claimed by Chang were USD 2.5bn.

The main reason of the dispute were that Carlsberg pulled out of the joint venture agreement between Carlsberg and Chang. The joint venture agreement were that Carlsberg would run all its Asian activities via Carlsberg Brewery Thailand Ltd. (which were to become Carlsberg Asia), and Chang were to inject an approx. 50% holding in Carlsberg Thailand Ltd. After a few years; however, Carlsberg felt that Chang were only focusing on the Chang brand, and used Carlsberg resources to specifically promote the Chang brand while ignoring the Carlsberg brand. In 2003 when Carlsberg tried to clean up the business in Thailand, the guys from copenhagen fired the whole board of Carlsberg Asia including Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and his wife. After this things went bad, and shortly after the joint venture were terminated by Carlsberg.

The result were that Carlsberg got kicked out of Thailand, and were prohibited from doing business here for several years.

So they learned a lesson on how to do business in Thailand, and that is why they are being particular careful this time, and they do not want to invest in brewing facilities here in Thailand, but will use their Malaysian brewing facility, and find a reliable distributer here in Thailand.

[Finlaco]

Thanks for the info.

[Jebhead]

WOW - you guys know a lot about beer!!!!

JH

[dddave]

The family that now produces Chang used to produce Carlsburg under license. They convinced Carlsburg to build them a nice, new state of the art brewery. Shortly after the brewery was completed, the family turned around and told Carlsburg that the production contract would not be renewed, the family then started producing Chang in quantity.

At this time: 2003, Singa had 80% of the domestic beer market. Chang deeply undercut wholesale prices,(some will remember Cathouse in Nana Plaza; all the Chang you could drink, 4-8pm for B100) put huge money into promotion and within a few years, reversed the market share figures.

Carlsburg disappeared until last year when the draft began coming in from Malaysia.

Half true, but not that part of it. It was Carlsberg that cancelled the licence agreement with the local production company CBTL who started a court action for damages against Carlsberg on the gounds that the notice of termination was invalid and I beleive I saw recently in the press that they were successful and were awarded damages.

The case ended with a settlement outside court were Carlsberg bought 10% of Hite Brewery South Korea, 49% of Carlsberg Hong Kong and 25% of Beer Lao for a total of USD 120mn. All these shares were acquired by Carlsberg Asia, which were a 50/50 joint venture between Carlsberg and Chang. The initial damages claimed by Chang were USD 2.5bn.

The main reason of the dispute were that Carlsberg pulled out of the joint venture agreement between Carlsberg and Chang. The joint venture agreement were that Carlsberg would run all its Asian activities via Carlsberg Brewery Thailand Ltd. (which were to become Carlsberg Asia), and Chang were to inject an approx. 50% holding in Carlsberg Thailand Ltd. After a few years; however, Carlsberg felt that Chang were only focusing on the Chang brand, and used Carlsberg resources to specifically promote the Chang brand while ignoring the Carlsberg brand. In 2003 when Carlsberg tried to clean up the business in Thailand, the guys from copenhagen fired the whole board of Carlsberg Asia including Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and his wife. After this things went bad, and shortly after the joint venture were terminated by Carlsberg.

The result were that Carlsberg got kicked out of Thailand, and were prohibited from doing business here for several years.

So they learned a lesson on how to do business in Thailand, and that is why they are being particular careful this time, and they do not want to invest in brewing facilities here in Thailand, but will use their Malaysian brewing facility, and find a reliable distributer here in Thailand.

I stand corrected.

[edwardandtubs]

They're now selling it at Big C for 41 baht for a small bottle (same as Heineken). Brewed in Vietnam. Nothing special taste-wise but at least it's brewed using 100% natural ingredients unlike Thai beers.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The V8 Diner on Suk Rd at Soi 12 has a daily special from 3 to 6 pm with Carlsberg bottles for 39 baht. Elsewhere, Carlsberg bottles seems to be available at bars and restaurants all over lower Sukhumvit... and I think I've seen some in the markets at well.

But as stated above, I tried a bottle when it first came back into BKK, and found the version here now to be nothing special or of particular interest.

[Dancealot]

WOW - you guys know a lot about beer!!!!

JH

Beer is a serious matter which should not be underestimated.

[tutsiwarrior]

I never understood the attraction of Carlsberg beer...when in Indonesia the 'seasoned expats' declared that it was 'the best'...I drank the local Bintang without complaint (very nice it is too, the brewery set by dutch colonialsts, preferable to Carlsberg I thought) and then it became: 'oh yeah? going native, are we? are you with us or against us?...'

they weren't very nice people...but maybe they were being anti-colonialist and I didn't realize...

Edited April 13, 2012 by tutsiwarrior

[jinjinswing]

We all have our own tastes, I prefer Carlsburg it's lighter to taste and easy to drink in the heat here and if it's available it's my first choice, Thai beer is good to but I cannot stomach Hinekien, to me it's heavy, swells my bellie and unpleasant taste.

[edwardandtubs]

We all have our own tastes, I prefer Carlsburg it's lighter to taste and easy to drink in the heat here and if it's available it's my first choice, Thai beer is good to but I cannot stomach Hinekien, to me it's heavy, swells my bellie and unpleasant taste.

Thai beer is full of chemicals. Carlsberg and Heineken are both made of 100% natural ingredients. Federbrau is claimed to be all-natural but it's brewed by the same company that brews Chang. If they're happy to screw their own business partners (see the posts above) then I'm sure they're happy to screw their own customers so how can you trust anything they say?