This is the article of the 2238th issue of the New Consumption Think Tank
New Consumption Guide
The growth of the craft beer brand Urbräu.
Author: Ringemu
Editor: Zhu Tian
审核：Single
Source: New Consumption Think Tank
What exactly should a good enough beer look like?
"It's what beer looks like, a good beer should go back to its brewing itself, and brewing is the best gift God can give to mankind," replied Li Qing, founder of Ubrau Craft Beer.
Li Qing, who loves riding motorcycles and sharing, came up with the idea of bringing craft beer to China after tasting European craft beer when he was riding around the world. "Set sail!" Li Qing wrote in his circle of friends in 2013, in the photo he had just completed signing a contract with the German company Krones, holding a glass of pure German craft beer.
In October 2013, with the support of Moyu Krones' Managing Director Miyaki Krones, the construction of the Urbräu site began with a complete line of equipment from the world-renowned brewer Krones. On May 8, 2015, Krones started production as the only model plant in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2023, the Ubrau craft brewing production base won the "International Beer Challenge (UK) - 2023 Asia's Best Distillery" and "2023 Asian Beer Challenge - Asia's Large Distillery Champion/China Brewery Champion" respectively.
After several years of exploration and attempts, Urbrao Beer has become a dark horse on this track with scenario-based marketing and highly replicable chain store opening.
In 2019, Ubrau Craft Brewing became one of the top ten beer brands in China, and won many international awards such as the Gold Award in the Wheat Group of the Brussels Beer Challenge and the Gold Award in the Wheat Group of the AIBA Australian Beer Competition on behalf of China Craft Beer. In 2022, Urbräu's first wheat won the gold medal in the Eurostar German Wheat Beer category, and in 2023, Urbrao Dough Wheat will continue to defend its title.
In 2020, the company's sales reached 300 million, achieving super growth for three consecutive years and becoming a leading brand in the craft beer industry. Up to now, the number of Ubrau offline stores has exceeded 2,000, covering 800 cities across the country.
What did Ubrau do right to achieve today's results? In the future, how big ambitions and dreams does Ubrau still have? What kind of founder is Li Qing who leads Ubrau forward? With such questions, the New Consumption Think Tank chatted with Li Qing.
The pioneer of a high-value craft brewery
Li Qing, who loves drinking and considers himself emotional, talked about craft beer products and gushed endlessly. "Once you enter the craft brewing, it is as deep as the sea, and from then on the beer is a passerby", which is the voice of every craft beer person, which is especially obvious in Li Qing.
Craft beer is also known as "craft beer", which means craft brewed beer. Its "refinement" is different from the process of industrial beer, and represents strict brewing standards and the spirit of beer craftsmanship that strives for excellence.
Beer originated before 6,000 BC, when the Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia brewed the original beer from barley malt. At the beginning of beer's existence, it was brewed in pure malt, with a rich and pure taste. However, due to the influence of large industrial assembly lines, in order to obtain more profits, beer production is becoming more and more standardized, the fermentation time is getting shorter and shorter, and the taste is becoming lighter and lighter.
The advent of craft beer can be said to be a retro return to beer. Unlike industrially produced beer, craft beer requires higher raw materials, longer fermentation time, and richer flavors.
In the past, in order to achieve scale effect, industrial beer would add a large amount of water in the later stage of fermentation, and in addition to reducing costs, rice and even syrup would be added. This results in beer being cheaper and cheaper, but the taste is getting weaker and lighter. Giant companies are business models that pursue profits and pay more attention to scale effects, but the industry track of craft beer must be product leading and have product advantages, and there is no cost advantage, and the business logic is completely different.
In order to create a better product, Urbrau has spent a lot of energy and time building its own production site.
At a time when craft brewing was just beginning to emerge in China and the brewing equipment was far from sufficient to support the quality of craft brewing, Urbrau was the first to introduce a complete line of Krones equipment from Germany, and in 2013 the Krones model plant in Asia was built. Located in Handan, Hebei Province, the Ubrau Craft Distillery is designed in a garden-style style and is the largest craft beer production base in Asia.
Urbräu is also designed and built in strict accordance with EU standards, which allows Urbräu to be the first to have the quality assurance of producing excellent craft brews, and to continue to brew products that are more suitable for Chinese consumers through state-of-the-art equipment.
In addition, Urbrau also has a number of senior national brewers and national R&D laboratories to conduct in-depth research on the brewing process, raw material optimization, taste allocation, nutrition and other aspects of craft beer, so as to brew higher quality craft beer that is more in line with the taste of the audience.
"Each of our products must be the ultimate and unique, and different from most products in the world," said Li Qing, "differentiated products are the foundation of Urbrao's entire foothold."
The leader of the craft beer industry in the processing of the industry
But after investing huge money and effort to build the factory, Urbrao was in trouble.
"After the factory was built in 2015, I thought that the money in our account was enough for a while, but I didn't expect that it would be enough for us to maintain it in just over a year, and in 2016, the pressure was suddenly great," Li Qing recalled.
In its first year of production, from 2015 to mid-2016, Urbrao was "unable to make ends meet", with the funds on its books quickly depleted, and the plant's revenues were nothing compared to its costs. The high cost of supporting the operation of a 10,000-ton distillery, coupled with the huge investment in the early stage, brings huge pressure and physical and mental torture.
"We have about half a year, everyone is half salary, even if it is half salary, we can't pay the supplier to settle the bill," Li Qing said, "During that time, many investors approached us, to be honest, it was a little shaken at that time, as long as you can pay the wages of employees, as long as you can settle the accounts of suppliers, as long as you can do a good job of Youbrao, you can negotiate any conditions." ”
In order to alleviate the pressure to survive, Urbrau has chosen to open up its co-packing business to other craft beer brands: on the one hand, it can alleviate the various pressures caused by overcapacity, and on the other hand, Urbräu's team is also rethinking the market and rethinking its own business direction.
However, what I didn't expect was that the predicament brought another turn for the better.
With a full range of Krones equipment + the support of the German technical team in Urbroau, Urbräu has irreplaceable advantages. So at that time, Ublau received orders from almost all the first-tier brands at that time, and Ublau also became famous for its OEM business.
Technical team from Krones in Ubrau in 2015
With the popularity of bottled craft beer on the market and the rise of many new craft beer brands, Urbrau has solved the problem of stable quality for many craft beer brands with ideas. At that time, Urbrau not only won awards in the world, but also helped many of its own OEM brands win many awards on the international stage.
Partial part of the award-winning medal of Urbrao
But at that time, Chinese craft brewing was still a very small circle. Some brands that are doing well and have been able to make some good cash flow steadily have started to invest their own money to build their own small-scale wineries. There are also some teams with relatively strong financial strength who have built wineries before the business officially begins.
At the same time, more and more medium-sized traditional breweries have begun to see the potential of the craft beer market, and have opened their own production capacity to the OEM business, and even did not hesitate to increase the small production lines suitable for craft beer brewing, reduce the cost of OEM, and attract craft beer brands to enter the construction of "factory in the factory" and other forms to attract more orders and occupy more market share in the craft beer industry.
As a result, the processing business lasted for a year, and Ublao was faced with the dilemma of having to find a replacement for the capacity of the processing business, or in other words, the processing business could not be used as a high-quality business to support a winery.
However, in the process of developing the OEM business, Urbräu has achieved rapid growth: by cooperating with brands and winemakers with a craft brewing vision, Ublau's eyes have been opened. They keep asking everyone for advice, learning and Xi, communicating with everyone, designing their own formulas, learning from new channels, mingling with bars, and then participating in the development of the industry, silently watching market changes, analyzing user needs, and preparing their own products.
Since 2016, Ublau has been experimenting with its own brand of beer. In Li Qing's eyes, this is his original intention to establish Youbrao.
Self-built craft beer sales system leads the way
Since 2017, Urbrao has continued to increase its attention and investment in product research and development, in addition to the classic "Captain IPA Series", "Toudao Wheat Series" and "Walker Ale Series", it has also continued to launch 0.6 degree lychee sea salt fruit wine and creative fruity craft beer series, creating a 40+ SKU product line to attract young consumers through diversified, interesting and creative ways.
The Three Musketeers of the Upper Path
Urbrao Walker Ale series
Urbrao creative new products (partial)
In order to let all employees, partners, and consumers have an in-depth understanding of the culture and brewing process of craft beer, Ubrau has incubated the "Beer Mobilization" project, where participating members can fully experience every step of brewing craft beer in the laboratory, and each participant will become the spark of Chinese craft beer.
Before each new product launch, Urbrau will hold an offline tasting meeting with a tasting officer to collect real feedback from a tasting team composed of professional winemakers and craft beer enthusiasts to ensure that each product can be delicious and beautiful.
In addition to insisting on making good products, Li Qing believes that for Ublau, starting to build its own channels in 2017 and delivering craft beer to homes and restaurants in a freshly beaten mode is a very strategic decision of the company, and it is also the most important decision they have made so far.
"Why do you make a good product but don't sell it?"
"On the one hand, our products were too much pursuit of brewing at that time, and a little ignored the acceptance of consumers, at that time we made pure German, Belgian, American craft beer, but for the Chinese, it was not so suitable; on the other hand, the users at that time still needed time to grow, not as mature as today, and did not distinguish what is a good product," Li Qing replied.
In the midst of the downturn, Urbrau began to try to find another way out. In Li Qing's view, craft beer needs to be promoted and experienced by consumers in person, and it is difficult to sell it if it is just placed on the shelves like other products.
"Good products are the source point, but good products need to be drunk by more people, so that they can have an overall feeling of 'good products', so we started to try freshly brewed craft beer with a shorter shelf life, and the sales scenario is mainly based on consumers trying before buying," Li Qing said.
Urbrao began to use food-grade PVC plastic bags to make wine, and the difference came out obviously, because it was a transparent bag, after the wine was punched in, you could see the cloudy body like juice, which was very beautiful. Even, at that time, Ublau also spent a small amount of money to shoot a commercial, and the actors were all extras from Handan. As a result of these attempts, Urbrao's beer quickly became popular and the repurchase rate was very high.
As a result, Ubrau began to choose to use a chain of tea shops to lay out craft brewery stores offline and rebuild channels. Among them, Ubrao's fist product is the "fresh craft brewing" model, which restricts the consumption radius by keeping "fresh", and the way of laying offline stores just solves this problem. Scenario-based marketing methods such as communities, more affordable prices, dine-in, take-out, take-out, etc., through which craft beer can quickly reach consumers. Urblau was able to break out of the encirclement.
At present, Ublao Fresh Craft Beer has opened more than 2,000 stores across the country. They will analyze the addresses of the top 100 stores every month, establish a dynamic location model, and accurately select locations to cover communities, restaurants and other business districts. Through dine-in, take-out, take-out, and self-delivery, the business around 3 kilometers of the store is thorough.
Craft brewing itself is a warm business, and the craft brewing crowd cares more about the temperature between people, and Ublau has also formed its own unique new store community operation system, regardless of the distance, it is recommended that the store deliver it in person, so as not to make customers wait too long.
Li Qing personally delivered to customers from "Ubrau 10th Anniversary Riding - Chengdu Station"
In addition, based on various scenarios such as customization, gift-giving, and parties, Urbrao has elevated the marketing of craft beer to the level of social demand, and reconstructed the consumer demand of the beer market at the height of wine culture. In addition to product upgrades, Ublau has also carried out cross-border collaborations, including cross-border co-branding with boxing, beer running activities, camping, film and television IP, etc.
Speed skating world champion Guo Dan became the spokesperson of the Ubrau brand image
In 2017, this strategic choice of self-built channels became the first milestone development event for Ublau. In 2018, the company's performance has achieved a tenfold increase. In 2023, Urbrao will achieve a new brand strategy upgrade, cooperate with the well-known marketing consulting company Xiaoma Song, and continue to toss with the service slogan of "fresh beer, home delivery to restaurant".
In addition to business logic, Li Qing said that he is more of an emotional person, a person who pays attention to the spiritual core. In his opinion, one of the company's biggest methodologies is that it comes from feelings and dares to toss.
In Li Qing's view, if you want to work the track of craft beer and become an excellent founder, the most important thing you need to maintain is first of all your feelings and love for the industry, and secondly, "those who don't know the old can never speak of the new", and you need to maintain your understanding of the industry and the spirit of innovation. With these two points, the remaining problems will be handed over to time, and only then can you endure loneliness, so that the moon will bloom.
The new challenge for Ubra is to expand its current 2,000-plus stores to 10,000. Li Qing hopes that this goal will be achieved in 3-5 years. However, for the current Ubrau, how to choose the right store address and how to make the organizational ability match the company's ability are still the shortcomings that the company needs to make up.
"I think craft beer is just getting started," Li said.
If you put aside the identity of an entrepreneur and a boss, Li Qing thinks that he is still a person who is ruthless enough to himself and has a strong sense of purpose, "I will never give up until I reach my goal, and many times I am in a state of selflessness." ”
Open Li Qing's personal Douyin "Youbrao Craft Beer Li Qing", the first three key words that appear highly summarize his work and life, "love beer, love motorcycles, love challenges". During the chat, what impressed us the most was his love for beer, the love that he put his whole life into and enjoyed it. Because of love, we are dead, and because of people like Mr. Li, we are looking forward to the future of Chinese craft brewing.
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