South Korea: The launch of Oriental Brewery’s low-alcohol beer, "Cass Ice Light”, renewed the beer war

South Korea's second-largest brewery, Oriental Brewery Co., unveiled on September 25 a low-alcohol beer that is expected to heat up the competition in the local market, Asia Pulse posted on September 25. Oriental Brewery released a beer with an alcohol content of 4.2 per cent, named "Cass Ice Light," which falls below the 4.5 per cent level in the general beer market, the company said.

The war map in the beer market has two big players Hite Brewery and Oriental Brewery which hold about 60 and 40 percent market shares, respectively. The share of imported beers stays at below the 1 percent mark.

While their market shares have shown little fluctuation over the past few years, Oriental Brewery expects its share to increase with the launch of Cass Ice Light, the first new Cass beer in 12 years since the brand was introduced in 1994.

But industry leader Hite Co. downplayed the possibility of such competition, saying a lower alcohol content does not have a significant effect on taste, unlike the "soju" liquor.

Nine years after Belgium-based InBev Co., the world's largest beer maker, bought a stake in Oriental, the South Korean company is releasing a new product with an ambitious marketing strategy that is likely to heat up the competition in the local beer market, the source said.

Oriental Brewery has two major brands, OB and Cass, which have a market share of 11 and 29 percent, respectively. OB brands also include Cafri and Budweiser. ``We believe Cass Ice Light will become one of the four major beer brands of Korea with Hite, OB and Cass,’’ OB spokesman Chung Yong-min said.

He said his company expects that the new Cass will take a certain portion of Hite’s share. “My CEO predicts our combined market share to climb to 46-47 percent in a few years.’’ Chung said 34 percent of Hite devotees had pointed out the strong flavor of the traditional Cass though they drink Cass sometimes. He stressed the new Cass is focused on the taste of female consumers in their 20s and 30s who like lower-alcohol drinks.

The issue now is how Hite Brewery will protect its dominant market share following the launch of Hite Prime Max early this month, an upgrade of Hite Prime, which was not successful in catching the majority of consumers’ taste. Max is an abbreviation of “maximum,’’ a Hite official said. “It means a maximization of the beer’s taste using 100-percent barley. We will boost the sales of the Hite Prime series with the new product.’’

The beer market has been in the doldrums for a couple of years as other liquors, such as Korean traditional alcohols and Western wines, have actively penetrated the market on the back of the “well-being’’ boom.

Beer producers are seeking to enlarge their share of the market by pushing customer-oriented marketing. OB has decided to offer the 1.8-liter bottle of OB Blue at the same price as the former 1.6-liter bottle. It also expanded its can sizes from 355 milliliters to 400 milliliters and froze prices.

During the Chusok holidays in early October, Hite will provide consumers who buy beer products with cooking oil and flour.

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