The stage has been set for another foreign beer battle in Southeast Asia. This time around, Laos is the battlefield of choice for Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) – partly owned by Heineken – as they plan to mount a serious challenge to the Danish beer giant Carlsberg.
APB, which already own 26 Asian breweries, have announced that they plan to build a brand new brewery in Laos. This specific expansion move is part of APB’s ambitions to become the leading brewery in the entire Asia Pacific region. Their most famous brand is the beer “Tiger”, which is sold in more than 60 countries.
With this newly-announced competition, Carlsberg will soon find out if their strong dominance on Laos’ foreign beer market is strong enough to resist such an attack. The Danish brewery group owns 50 per cent of the shares in Lao Brewery Company, while the national government owns the other half. The overall beer consumption in Laos makes up about 15 liters per person each year. In Denmark, the number is 90 liters per person.
