2698 yuan two bottles! Brewers have taken the high-end route

Recently, Tsingtao Beer launched an ultra-high-end new product "Legend of the First Century", and the e-commerce platform showed a price of 2698 yuan / 1.5L * 2 bottles.

In the face of this new product with a single bottle price of more than 1,000 yuan, netizens have talked about it, some people have questioned its IQ tax, and some people have expressed understanding - some people are willing to drink 10,000 bottles of beer is also his freedom.

The reporter noted that in addition to Tsingtao Beer, Budweiser beer has recently launched a tiger age edition beer called "Master Legend" on the e-commerce platform, with a price of up to 1588 yuan / bottle, even exceeding the market guidance price of 1499 yuan for Feitian Moutai. Earlier, China Resources Beer launched a high-end series of beer "Li", priced at 999 yuan / box (2 bottles).

Beer giants have launched ultra-high-end new products

On January 9th, Tsingtao Beer's "Legend of the First Century" ultra-high-end art collection was released in the centennial wine cellar of Tsingtao Beer Centennial Factory. According to reports, this is a collection of beer, whiskey, wine, champagne in one of the strengths of the art brewing collection.

He Yong, secretary general of the China Liquor Industry Association and chairman of the Beer Branch, said in his speech at the scene that 2021 is the first year of the high-end of Chinese beer, which is not only the high-end of beer brewing technology, but also the high-end consumption trend of the new era.

The reporter inquired about the Tmall flagship store of Qingdao Beer and found that since its launch on January 9, this ultra-high-end new product has been sold 6 times.

On the road to high-end, Tsingtao Beer is not alone. Recently, AB InBev, the world's largest beer producer, launched budweiser "Master Legend" Tiger Age Edition gift box. According to the Budweiser Tmall flagship store, this gift box is priced at 1588 yuan and 25 have been sold so far.

In May 2021, China Resources Snowflake Beer launched a high-end series of beer "Li", priced at 999 yuan / box (2 bottles). Hou Xiaohai, CEO of China Resources Snowflake Beer, said at the time that "Li" did not have a benchmark product in the beer industry, but "Li" and Moutai at the same table did not violate the same at all. According to the Tmall flagship store, the monthly sales volume of "Li" is 200+.

Although high-end beer is still relatively fresh in China, it is not uncommon in foreign countries, such as Japan's Asahi, Carlsberg and other overseas high-end brands are also loved by Chinese consumers.

For beer giants to launch high-end products, Chinese food industry commentator Zhu Danpeng said that high-end products are more profitable. From the consumer side, there is no shortage of high-end beer consumers in China, who pursue personalization, differentiation and high-end. On the channel side, the previous perennial price war in China's beer market has made the channel side very tired, and the trend of high-end has benefited them.

Mid-to-high-end products have become the main force of revenue

According to Euromonitor International's standards, beer is divided into high-end (≥14 yuan / 500ml), mid-end (7-14 yuan / 500ml) and economic (00ml) three grades (the specific price point depends on the brand positioning, subject to the actual situation), and major beer manufacturers also have corresponding grades of beer products.

China's beer production has peaked and declined since 2013, and driven by the upgrading of consumption on the demand side and the profit pressure of supply-side enterprises, the industry has reached a high-end consensus since 2018. At present, the focus of products of various manufacturers has gradually shifted from the original low-price homogeneous economic beer to the mid-range and high-end products with diverse varieties and higher prices.

Yanjing Beer said in the 2020 annual report that the concentration of China's beer industry industry is high, the proportion of high-end beer in the beer industry is gradually rising, and the sales of high-end beer of five beer companies such as Yanjing Beer account for about 80% of the overall market share. The annual report disclosed that the operating income of Yanjing Beer's mid-to-high-end products in 2020 was about 6.028 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 60% of the total revenue, an increase of 2.79% year-on-year.

Tsingtao Beer revealed in its 2020 annual report that high-end products such as Centennial Journey, Amber Lager, August, Hongyun Dangtou, Classic 1903, and Pure Draft Beer achieved a total sales volume of 1.792 million hectoliters, accounting for 46% of the sales of its main brand Tsingtao Beer. According to the data of the 2021 semi-annual report, the main brand Tsingtao Beer achieved product sales of 2.528 million kiloliters, an increase of 20.9% year-on-year, of which the sales volume of high-end products or above increased by 41.4% year-on-year, maintaining the competitive advantage in the domestic beer market for high-end products.

Pearl River Beer said in the 2021 semi-annual report that the company's completed beer sales increased by 10.25% over the same period last year during the reporting period, of which high-end beer sales increased by 23.01% year-on-year, and the high-end product 97 pure raw sales launched in 2019 increased by 121.03% year-on-year. During the reporting period, the revenue of high-end products accounted for 56.73%, and the revenue of mid-range products accounted for 35.97%.

Ping An Securities said that in the next 3 years, the wave of high-end of China's beer industry is expected to accelerate, from the perspective of high-end space, it is expected that the income space of China's beer industry will reach 208.1 billion yuan in the next 5-10 years, which will have 42% expansion space compared with 2020, while high-end will be more flexible for profit release, assuming that the net profit margin reaches 20%, the profit margin is 41.6 billion yuan.

CITIC Securities Research Report believes that the inflection point of China's high-end beer has arrived, which is not only an inevitable stage in the development of the beer industry, but also an inevitable choice for beer leading companies after repeated games. The beer market has a wide space for upgrading, and it is expected that the high-end will win the world in the future.

Source: Shanghai Securities News

For more exciting content, please download the "Morning Video" client in the app market. Press leads are welcome and are paid as soon as they are adopted. Breaking news WeChat concern: xxcbwx, 24-hour report hotline [phone].