Carlsberg buys Chinese brewery
Asian beer market with the acquisition of the Kunming Huashi
brewery for an undisclosed sum.
Danish brewer Carlsberg has acquired the Chinese brewery Kunming Huashi Brewery Company from the Zhejiang K.K. Group. The price paid was not disclosed.
The acquisition, which is subject to the approval of the Chinese authorities, was carried out by Carlsberg's subsidiary Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong, which already owns 99 per cent of the Huizhou brewery in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and 25 per cent of Tsingtao Beer in Shanghai.
Kunming Huashi brewery is situated in Kunming, the biggest city in Yunnan province in the south western part of China, bordering Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. It has a capacity of 600,000 hl beer, and Carlsberg said that this was a major factor in its decision to acquire the company. The population of Yunnan province is 43 million, but the annual per capita beer consumption 4.2 litres - well below the Chinese average of 18 litres.
Yunnan province is becoming increasingly popular with tourists, another factor which the Danish brewer said was likely to help increase beer consumption there.
The Chinese beer market is estimated to be around 235 million hl, and is still dominated by local brands. The Carlsberg brand is among the leading international beer brands, but the European group still has only a tiny fraction of total sales.
