Sunny day in Atlanta

Who drinks Asahi Super Dry?

A news report says that Asahi, Japanese 2nd largest brewery company, is seeking to merge with another company in order to be the world’s top 10 of food makers. While its rival companies, Kilin and Suntry, have failed to merge themselves the other day, Asahi still look for a nice partner.

There are four big beverage companies in Japan, Kilin, Asahi, Suntry, and Supporo. Supporo is the fourth in the market and has a famous beer brand. Although there seems to be a possibility of merging Asahi with Supporo, they can not find any merit in matching themselves because their main products are almost same. Both “Super-dry” and “Sapporo-Nama” are famous beer brands in Japan, so they don’t want to offset their merits each other.

On the other hand, Kilin and Suntry seem to be a best match as Suntry has a priority in whisky products. They can make profits from different fields of the beverage market. But they can not reach the agreement due to the difference of corporate culture. Kilin is a world wide company, while Suntry is a family-held company.

In Japan, the beer market reduces recently. People have changed their drink at dinner from beer to non-alcohol. I think this is because Japanese company men and women who suffer from economic recession began to go home straight after working.

Under those circumstances, brewery companies have to reclaim new land in another industry, not beer. This is the reason why Asahi is looking for a right partner who has attractive products so that it become a leader of the market. I wonder who drinks “Asahi Super Dry” next ?