Let It Snow

Recently reported in the Financial Times:

A single Chinese brewer last year sold more beer than was sold in the whole of Germany, an illustration of the shifting balance of consumer—and economic—power.

Snow Beer, the joint venture between UK-listed SABMiller and China Resources, sold 91.7m hectolitres last year, according to industry consultancy Plato Logic, up 27 per cent in two years and outstripping Germany’s shrunken 91.2m hectolitres.

Never heard of Snow Beer? That’s probably because it’s a cheap local brew not available to the rest of us. And despite being the bestselling beer in China and around the world (by volume), Snow has a remarkably low profit margin. What will be interesting to see is how much the Chinese are willing to spend on premium lager: A SABMiller press release announced the latest entry into China’s market—Miller Genuine Draft. Talk about gettin’ fancy!