South Korea: Oriental Brewery has gained a bigger market share than industry leader Hite Co.

South Korea's second-leading beer maker, Oriental Brewery Co., has gained a bigger market share than industry leader Hite Co. in monthly sales of draft beer for the first time in 11 years, Asia Pulse and Yonhap cited an industry association saying on January 17.

Oriental Brewery's flagship beer Cass led the market with a 46.2 % market share in October. Hite Brewery's leading item Hite was the No. 2 player with a 43.9 % share, the Korea Alcohol & Liquor Industry Association said. According to the survey results of Oriental Brewery, Cass controlled 44.8 % of the market in November and 45.8 % in the following month.

"Our six years of working to broaden our popularity among people in their 20s has finally started to pay off," said Oriental Brewery President Kim Jun-young. The company said people in the 20-29 age bracket consume 49 per cent of the draft beer sold in South Korea.

As of 2005, the domestic market for draft beer amounted to 354 million liters and accounted for 23 per cent of the total beer market.