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Sleeman up for grabs

Discuss beer or anything else that comes to mind in here.

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GregClow
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Post by GregClow »

Hamilton Brian wrote:So does this mean goodbye to Upper Canada?
Would anyone really miss them?

I mean, yeah, there's some emotional attachment to the brand - for many of us, UC Lager or Dark was probably one of the first micro beers we tried. But the UC beers left from the original line-up are now shells of their former selves, and the ones they've added since like the Red and Pale Ale range from mediocre to dreadful. I'll shed no tears if they pull the plug.
Hamilton Brian wrote:Further to Unibroue, why can I go to Premier and find more from Unibroue than here in Ontario?
Because Sleeman has been more interested in cracking the US market with Unibroue and rebranded versions of some of their main line-up than expanding distribution anywhere in Canada.

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Tapsucker
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Post by Tapsucker »

One thing I haven't seen considered here is the impact of Unibroue (or even the shadow of UC) on the Japanese market.

We tend to think of all trade facing outward, so we assume Sapporo is just looking to expand it's foothold in North America. More exciting is the powerhouse marketing Sapporo can bring for the Canadian brands back home.

I'm looking forward to the Japanese beer consumer complaining that the domestically brewed beer doesn't taste as good as the stuff they had when they visited Canada! Sapporo could educate and crack a huge beer market for itself and lot's of other Canadian micros to follow.

The big bland boys tend to look at business synergies in terms of production and operations. But the clever disruptive businesses look for synergies in product and brand. While Japan has traditionally been conservative (a bit of an oxymoron - sorry), many newer consumers are attracted to the exotic. Sapporo could be sitting on a gold mine. They could inject a lot of cache into their brand for this newer consumer.

Another side to this is the importance of product integrity. To sell the product as a true exotic, requires honoring it's source. This may explain or support the promise not to fiddle with the company,

Perhaps the Coors and Interbrew people should be more worried about the purchase, not for it's threat in Canada, but for what it could do to lock them out in Japan.

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

PRMason wrote:The Japanese consummer is quite knowledgeable in affairs of the beer. I hope that their brewers are too. Unibroue is the jewel in that crown and if all the hype about Japanese business acumen is true they'll know enough to leave it alone.
Its encouraging to see that their focus will be on the premium brands and not on the discount lines, which may be sold off or discontinued.
I am re-thinking my pessimism over Japanese posession of Unibroue... the Japanese do have a positive knack for appreciating, appropriating, duplicating & stringent manufacturing of Western designed consumer goods.

Look at cameras, guitars, cars, electronics... consider where the designs originate from (Western Europe, USA), and consider who is practically dominating those icons with some of the best product in the world (that's right, Japan.)

Of course the Brewer is everything in this case, and I hope the Sapporo company apply the reverence of an art form the Japanese people have a great capacity for. I wish them (and our friends at Unibroue) a very creative and successful venture.
In Beerum Veritas

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pootz
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Post by pootz »

In reading Steve B's thoughts on Japanese management and their approach to the Brewing industry...and having a decade of first hand knowledge of Japanese business management in the electronics industry, I fear for the appendages in this deal.

Unhearalded east of Alberta, and largely unknown to Ontario consumers is Sleeman's other "jewel"... which is the newly re-fitted Okanagan Springs Brewery ...who brew some of the best all malt traditional German lagers and dunkels in Canada available widely in bottle and can.

If a western buyer steps up to the plate and buy OSB back from Sapporo I will feel much better...I just hope they get the chance to do it before some Nipponese bean counter realizes that the new brewing equipment at OSB represents a better short term recovery than expanding the brewery's presence in wrestern Canada and the US.
Last edited by pootz on Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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northyorksammy
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Post by northyorksammy »

The Japanese in general are more interested in expanding market share then profit, and are much more long term thinking in their profitability. I am more comfortable with Sappuro than Mr. Sleeman in preserving wht is there. However neither scenerio encourages the entrepeneurship of a small growing private company

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

northyorksammy wrote:The Japanese in general are more interested in expanding market share then profit, and are much more long term thinking in their profitability.
America thinks about business in quarterly stockholder reports (serving that artificial goal at all costs), whereas the more thoughtful, reserved Japanese think in centuries and lifetimes.

But... whether or not Okanagan and Unibroue fit the models of greater market share & long term vision is very much at the Sapporo Co's discretion now, isn't it?!
In Beerum Veritas

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Blankboy
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Post by Blankboy »

I thought the following article was interestting. Not sure where it originally originates from but this copy is from the BelgiumShop Newsletter:

Beer boom in Japan

The flaming barbecue grills aren't alone in whipping up a thirst for cold brew at Shiodome Garden, a rooftop beer restaurant surrounded by flashing neon billboards.

Also whetting the appetite is Japan's rekindled economy. "I love beer," declared Akihiro Seki, a 39-year-old insurance accountant, downing his fifth icy glass in the muggy open air. "We know the economy's getting better, so we feel more confident spending a little extra."

Japanese beer shipments , according to Associated Press, are on the rise for the first time in a decade as the world's second-largest economy toasts a brisk recovery from years of doldrums. But the future of Japan's $24.8 billion beer industry is anything but bubbly.

Changing tastes, more healthful lifestyles and Japan's shrinking population are all looming buzz kills for an industry that has already undergone painful restructuring during a recently ended decade of economic stagnation.

Struggling to keep the profits coming, Japan's big brewers - Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory - are trying everything from diversifying into baby food to expanding into China and introducing soybean beer. So far, they've had mixed results.

"Until now, the beer market has been shrinking because people wanted cheaper drinks," said Shuji Takimoto, a spokesman for the Brewers Association of Japan. "But just judging by the changing population, the future of beer also looks tough."

The good news is that in the first half of 2006, domestic shipments of beer rose 0.3 percent, the first increase in a decade, as rising wages and consumer optimism encouraged people to dine out. Shipments of all beer products climbed 1.1 percent, to 230.66 million cases, its first increase in five years.

The Japanese weren't even brewing their own beer until 1872. But by 2004, Japan was the world's sixth-biggest consumer, guzzling 1.7 billion gallons a year.

On a per-capita basis, the country is Asia's No. 1, with each Japanese quaffing an annual average of 13.5 gallons - or one 12-ounce can every 2½ days. But that grand drinking tradition is under attack from several corners.

Wine and spirits are slowing converting taste buds, and health concerns are turning more people off to alcohol in general. And Japan's declining population and rising ranks of elderly - at 21 percent, the world's highest proportion age 65 or older - mean a future with fewer beer drinkers, not matter how devout.
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