VietNamNet Bridge - Later this month, Sapporo Holdings will introduce its cheap beer product in Vietnam in an effort to find ways to grow in the promising market, reported Nikkei.

The new product will be released on July 28, at scheduled prices from VND13,000 to VND15,000 for 330 ml, about 30% cheaper than Sapporo Premium beer which is available on the market, Nikkei reported.

The Japanese company aims to sell 150,000 barrels of beer in Vietnam this year. The new product targets at the rapidly growing middle class in Vietnam, where the cheap beer outlet accounts for around 90% of the market.

Nikkei said that competition on the beer and alcohol market of Vietnam is increasingly fierce.

The biggest beer producer in Vietnam is the Saigon Beverage Corporation (SABECO), the owner of 333 beer brand and other cheap beer products with about 50% of market share. Heineken of the Netherlands also holds a large market share with the brand Tiger. Anheuser Busch InBev of Belgium, the biggest beer company in the world, opened a plant in southern Vietnam last year.

Sapporo entered Vietnam as a joint venture with a state-owned tobacco company in 2010. They built a brewery in 2011 near Ho Chi Minh City. However, its market share was only 1%.

Sapporo Holdings turned Sapporo Vietnam into its own subsidiary last year and since then has expanded its market to Da Nang and other provinces.

Vietnamese people consumed 3.9 billion liters of beer in 2014, ranking 3rd in Asia, after China and Japan. The Vietnam market is being extended by several percent per year and is expected to exceed Japan in 2020-2025. Consumption of beer in China has reached the threshold, making Vietnam one of the few developing beer markets.

Son Tung