>>4863297Canned cocktails blitz beer
Pre-mixed drinks pushed as sales of high-tax lagers continue to slide
Japanese brewers will release a record lineup of canned cocktails this summer as fizzy concoctions come to the fore in efforts to offset a decade of declining beer sales.
Brewers such as Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. have long tried to retain drinkers by making cheaper beerlike beverages. But changing tastes among Japan’s youth have seen near-beer giving up fridge space to highballs, white-wine spritzers and pineapple-flavoured rum cocktails.
These so-called ready-to-drink cocktails, like the cheapest beerlike drinks, fall into a low-tax category of Japan’s complex liquor tax regime and can be priced far less than traditional tipples.
This has helped them become the top introduction to alcohol among twenty-somethings, a survey by brewer Suntory Holdings Ltd. shows.
In response to rising popularity, Suntory plans to release a record 23 canned cocktail products from June to August versus 17 last year. Asahi Group Holdings launched a hot seller in May, and Kirin announced a new range in June.
The increased choice means “this will be an important summer to further boost demand in RTDs,” Suntory Managing Director Shinji Yamada said, referring to ready-to-drink products.
Demand is likely to be so strong that Suntory plans to raise output for its Strong Zero series of canned cocktails by 10 percent this summer, and may increase production capacity next summer, Yamada said.
The ready-to-drink cocktail market has almost doubled since 2001, whereas traditional beer sales have nearly halved, data from Suntory shows.
Sales of beer have slimmed as once-universal drinking binges among office workers go out of fashion and Japan’s increasingly health-conscious younger generations develop a taste for drinks containing fewer calories.
