Carlsberg sees huge potential in Thai beer market

[Roota]

I didn't know Leo was a local beer, thought it was everywhere in Thailand.

It is everywhere, as it's made by Boon Rawd a.k.a. Singh. When you hear that Singh is still #1, that's including Leo.

'

[thai3]

Leo is not beer, is it?

[DrTuner]

I think you will find that Singha are still number one and by a long way.

A bit strange really. All the Thais I know drink Leo or Chang. Who's drinking Singha?

[DrTuner]

As I remember it Chang screwed Carlsberg in the Thai way or at least that's the way it came out in discussion back then.

Chang = Elephant = Carlsberg Elephant Beer. Yeah, they got shafted. Probably the reason they are brewing in Laos now.

Edited July 21, 2016 by DrTuner

[GOLDBUGGY]

Somehow I can't picture a Thai coming home with a 24 pack of Carlsberg. Especially if he has to pay more for it.

You might be able to sell the Carlsberg Draft Beer in some upscale bars if the price is right, and Carlsberg Beer in 5 Star Hotels, but that is about all I can see for here. If Carlsberg gains any market share at all in Thailand they would just be taking away from the Heineken Market, which only stands at 4% of the total sales right now.

I personally feel that Thailand would be a terrible place to try and introduce a new Beer. The only chance of being able to do that is to introduce a good beer at the lowest price. Since Thai Beer is a protected market, and even if you brew your beer here like Carlsberg, but still have to pay a special tax, you have no chance of ever being the cheapest beer sold here.

[casualbiker]

in a price conscious market penetration of

imported beers is more difficult due to higher

cost factors.

and beer is beer unless you are a connoisseur.

beer drinking like teas is a personal choice.even the ceaper

CHEERS is not a bad beer.

That last comment just proves you don't have operational taste buds... CHEERS is not a beer, it's bar tap swill. There ya go I fixed it for ya

[GOLDBUGGY]

I think you will find that Singha are still number one and by a long way.

A bit strange really. All the Thais I know drink Leo or Chang. Who's drinking Singha?

That is a good question and I agree with you totally. I was surprised that the market share for Singha was 72%. I don't see Thais drink Singha either.

The only place where I could see where Singha was the top seller was in open bars. Everyone of these places sell Singha as there main beer. Or at least the ones I went to. So if Farangs are the ones that frequent these bars the most then I guess they are also the biggest buyers of Singha.

[GOLDBUGGY]

in a price conscious market penetration of

imported beers is more difficult due to higher

cost factors.

and beer is beer unless you are a connoisseur.

beer drinking like teas is a personal choice.even the ceaper

CHEERS is not a bad beer.

I agree! Beer is Beer! After the first 12 Beers I can't tell the difference in their taste anymore either.

[superal]

What concerns me is the amount of fake beers produced by small breweries ,

, not to mention your whiskeys and brandys . It appears that there is a set selling price for most beers in well known outlets but there is a busy store in my town that gives a small discount ( 10 baht on a box of large Chang ) , I wonder how they can manage that ?

[Psimbo]

Carlsberg has been back in Thailand for about 4 years and has flopped. it was heavily marketed around Phuket but the demand for it has dried up- a lot of bars don't stock it now, I found it quite indifferent.

On the plus side Beer Lao is more and more available (mainly through Makro). Persuading bars to stock it unless they have a load of converted drinkers is an uphill battle though. It has less of a shelf life due to the lack of preservatives compared to Thai beers, making it difficult to source in bars.

[LeeKat]

CARLSBERG - Probably 'the best in the world'. Not!

Edited July 21, 2016 by LeeKat

[JAG]

I would wish to carry out some extensive research over a sustained period, preferably in the company of some fetching damsel, but I am sure that if I tried really really hard I could see some potential in Carlsberg!

Purely in the interest of research you understand.

[JAG]

Now if Guinness was brewed locally instead of in Malaysia that would be a real story.

Nothing against Carlsberg but it's just another ordinary beer.

Compared to fetching the stuff from Dublin, Malaysia seems pretty local to me!

I must confess, whilst I was partial to a drop of the stuff back in the UK, It doesn't work for me in this climate...

[DrTuner]

Carlsberg has been back in Thailand for about 4 years and has flopped. it was heavily marketed around Phuket but the demand for it has dried up- a lot of bars don't stock it now, I found it quite indifferent.

On the plus side Beer Lao is more and more available (mainly through Makro). Persuading bars to stock it unless they have a load of converted drinkers is an uphill battle though. It has less of a shelf life due to the lack of preservatives compared to Thai beers, making it difficult to source in bars.

This might come as a surprise to some: http://www.carlsberggroup.com/brands/Pages/BeerlaoLager.aspx

[Eclipse]

in a price conscious market penetration of

imported beers is more difficult due to higher

cost factors.

and beer is beer unless you are a connoisseur.

beer drinking like teas is a personal choice.even the ceaper

CHEERS is not a bad beer.

That last comment just proves you don't have operational taste buds... CHEERS is not a beer, it's bar tap swill. There ya go I fixed it for ya

Best of a bad bunch.

[kickstart]

Competition has to be a great thing, same old tasteless rubbish they serve here.

Somebody here must introduce a dark beer, Lao did it and it is good...BUT, perhaps the locals here cannot deal with taste...I think that may be the case. After all, folk here drink whiskey in a half pint glass, job to see the whiskey, then topped up with soda, then ice, them water...What the _____is that......WATER......

It must have been 12-15 years ago they was a dark beer very nice it was to ,I think ? Sing produced it , I found it more of a bitter tast ,it did not last long , not sweet enough for the Thai palet price wise it was about the same as other beers at the time .

The Casburg guy is right beer cosumtion has droped in Thailand , we rear a few beef cattle and feed them brewers grains ,which are solid residue left after the processing of germinated and dried cereal ,in this case barley ,for the production of beer , a good cattle feed it is to

But, for the past 2 months ,our 3 big sellers of brewers grains in this area are .finding they is a lot less now , we have run out a few times , all say brewers are cutting back on production ,Thais are not drinking the beer they use to , too expensive , now drink Hong Tong and lao Khoe, also now is the start of the Thai lent ,and a lot of Thais do give up alcohol for the lent period ,

[Winniedapu]

Competition has to be a great thing, same old tasteless rubbish they serve here.

Somebody here must introduce a dark beer, Lao did it and it is good...BUT, perhaps the locals here cannot deal with taste...I think that may be the case. After all, folk here drink whiskey in a half pint glass, job to see the whiskey, then topped up with soda, then ice, them water...What the _____is that......WATER......

It must have been 12-15 years ago they was a dark beer very nice it was to ,I think ? Sing produced it , I found it more of a bitter tast ,it did not last long , not sweet enough for the Thai palet price wise it was about the same as other beers at the time .

The Casburg guy is right beer cosumtion has droped in Thailand , we rear a few beef cattle and feed them brewers grains ,which are solid residue left after the processing of germinated and dried cereal ,in this case barley ,for the production of beer , a good cattle feed it is to

But, for the past 2 months ,our 3 big sellers of brewers grains in this area are .finding they is a lot less now , we have run out a few times , all say brewers are cutting back on production ,Thais are not drinking the beer they use to , too expensive , now drink Hong Tong and lao Khoe, also now is the start of the Thai lent ,and a lot of Thais do give up alcohol for the lent period ,

Between the smoking and the drinking and the incidence of hyperglycaemia (and diabetes), Thais are heading for a health problem I think.

Winnie

[IsaanUSA]

Serious question, looking for serious answers.

If they had a brewery in SE Asia (such as Laos), can't they sell it in Thailand under AEC? There shouldn't be any importation tax due to the free trade, no?

[The manic]

The beer drinking world is turning away from factory made pish to real ale and craft beers.....and cider.

[gunzel3808]

To make any money in the beer trade you have to sell vast quantities. So selling draught beer in kegs will help rather than slabs of two dozen at a time or six packs, which is slow and tedious.

Good luck to the promoters. They will need it in this market.

I also note the comment in the original article about the increasing national debt. That is certainly true from what I have observed and it seems to be related to the introduction of easy credit derived from the introduction of credit cards with poor checking of applicants ability to repay these cards. The result now in upcountry areas is people selling assets like land, to repay their cc debts. This means there is an opportunity for those with cash to buy up cheap land as is the case with my wife and some family members living OS who are buying up farming land in their home village back in Udon Thani.

i AM GETTING SIDETRACKED, SORRY!

[dcnx]

'Probably' the worse lager in the world.............

Perfect for consumers of beer who don't know what great beer tastes like.

[Thian]

Not much of an opening for Carlsberg I suspect. The concessions already been given and paid for.

Two's company but three...

Winnie

Therein lies the problem. These companies have a stranglehold on beer production and certain people in their pockets to ensure the barrier to entrance into the market is too high for anyone else to have a fair shot.

Anything foreign gets the **** taxed out of it, yet the rock gut lao daeng and lao kao are allowed to prosper to get the general public in a state of intoxication so as to not want to buck the system.

It's rigged I tell ya, rigged.

Well Heineken also has a good position in the Thai beermarket so it sure is possible and i don't consider Heineken a good beer.

Why is nobody brewing a Thaimade quality whitebeer like Hoegaarden? The german brewery has it though but it's not as good as the real thing.

BKK will rather pay a topprice for imported whitebeer instead of drinking the Thai beers. That tells a lot about the quality of Thai beer.

[Fallangpakwan]

" The beer market is extremely large and Thai consumers enjoy all sorts of beers, from local brands like Leo to more expensive super-premium brands that you now see in upscale bars and restaurants"

What about the majority of restaurants? How many times to you go into a restaurant and ask what beer do they have only to be told the same old story

"Leo, sing, Chang, Heineken" that's it 90% of the time. It's like they are not allowed to offer something else or those Thai consumers don't give a toss for anything different.

Yes always gets to me why the choice is so limited; even in some very fancy restaurants upcountry;such as Khaomao-Khaofang at Mae Sot; that's what's on offer, even though within a mile Makro sells my fave TIGER and a whole host of others by the carton.

[GOLDBUGGY]

" The beer market is extremely large and Thai consumers enjoy all sorts of beers, from local brands like Leo to more expensive super-premium brands that you now see in upscale bars and restaurants"

What about the majority of restaurants? How many times to you go into a restaurant and ask what beer do they have only to be told the same old story

"Leo, sing, Chang, Heineken" that's it 90% of the time. It's like they are not allowed to offer something else or those Thai consumers don't give a toss for anything different.

Yes always gets to me why the choice is so limited; even in some very fancy restaurants upcountry;such as Khaomao-Khaofang at Mae Sot; that's what's on offer, even though within a mile Makro sells my fave TIGER and a whole host of others by the carton.

Yes, besides Marco, TIGER Beer is difficult to find. I can't recall if I ever found one in an open bar before, or even a 7-11.

[sweetrogue]

Not much of an opening for Carlsberg I suspect. The concessions already been given and paid for.

Two's company but three...

Winnie

Therein lies the problem. These companies have a stranglehold on beer production and certain people in their pockets to ensure the barrier to entrance into the market is too high for anyone else to have a fair shot.

Anything foreign gets the **** taxed out of it, yet the rock gut lao daeng and lao kao are allowed to prosper to get the general public in a state of intoxication so as to not want to buck the system.

It's rigged I tell ya, rigged.

'Course it is - which Thai/Chinese businessman in his right mind would allow a foreign brewery to dominate the local market?

Carlsberg got into an argy-bargy with Thai Beverage, makers of Chang, a dozen years ago which ended up costing the former $120m to re-enter Thailand. That's how lucrative the market is.

Personally, never touch Carlsberg - filthy stuff.

[farcanell]

That's what we need!

More beer choices to help dampen the moralistic wowsers on phi phi

[sjaak327]

" The beer market is extremely large and Thai consumers enjoy all sorts of beers, from local brands like Leo to more expensive super-premium brands that you now see in upscale bars and restaurants"

What about the majority of restaurants? How many times to you go into a restaurant and ask what beer do they have only to be told the same old story

"Leo, sing, Chang, Heineken" that's it 90% of the time. It's like they are not allowed to offer something else or those Thai consumers don't give a toss for anything different.

Perhaps the owner stocks those labels that sell well - I would.

BTW Beer Lao is super-premium???

Beerlao is a fantastic beer. It trashes anything the Thai produce. Wish they would make the draught version available in Thailand.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

Carlsbrg opened a brewery here when the market was first opened up in the mid 1990s. The bottles were labeled Carlsberg but the brew was Carlsberg Special Brew which had been watered back to about 8%. They then mysteriously lost their licence after a few years and hey presto Chang was born!

I don't like Chang or Carlsberg so I couldn't really care less.

Give me a Singha or a Cheers any day.

[The Blot]

Carlsberg Brewery, damn! I drunk a Angelo beer in a pub in Sthlm. Thougt it was Italy beer, but the owners was Carlsberg Brewery!!! So big disappointment, to sad...

[Thian]

Carlsbrg opened a brewery here when the market was first opened up in the mid 1990s. The bottles were labeled Carlsberg but the brew was Carlsberg Special Brew which had been watered back to about 8%. They then mysteriously lost their licence after a few years and hey presto Chang was born!

I don't like Chang or Carlsberg so I couldn't really care less.

Give me a Singha or a Cheers any day.

I remember Carlsberg special brew as a beer with a herb in it, valerian. It was a tranquilizer and many homeless people were addicted to it.

I foresee a great future for Carlsberg in Thailand if they can produce real whitebeer for an affordable price. Then even i will start drinking beer again.