Company Perspectives:
The Asahi Breweries Group aims to satisfy customers with the highest levels of quality and integrity, while contributing to the promotion of healthy living and the enrichment of society worldwide.
Key Dates:
1889:
Japanese government sells its Hokkaido brewery to private interests, simultaneously establishing Osaka Beer Brewing Company and several other brewing companies.
1892:
Osaka begins production of Asahi Beer.
1893:
Osaka is reorganized as Osaka Breweries, Ltd.
1906:
Osaka, Sapporo Brewery, and Nippon Brewing Company are amalgamated into Dai Nippon Brewery Co., Ltd., which includes a separate division called Asahi.
1907:
Asahi introduces the Mitsuya Cider soft drink brand.
1949:
Dai Nippon is divided into two parts: Asahi Beer, Ltd. and Nippon Breweries, Ltd.
1958:
Canned version of Asahi Beer, Japan's first canned beer, is introduced.
1983:
Asahi begins producing Lowenbrau Beer under license in Japan.
1987:
Asahi Super Dry is introduced and becomes a blockbuster hit.
1989:
Asahi Beer, Ltd. is renamed Asahi Breweries, Ltd.
1994:
A push into the burgeoning Chinese market begins with the purchase of controlling interests in several breweries.
1995:
Wide-ranging alliance with U.S.-based Miller Brewing Company commences.
1996:
Super Dry becomes the top-selling beer in Japan.
2001:
Asahi enters the happoshu segment with the introduction of Honnama; company gains the top spot in the Japanese beer market, edging past longtime rival Kirin.
Company History:
Asahi Breweries, Ltd. is the number one brewer in Japan; its 38.7 percent share of the Japanese market in 2001 edged out arch-rival Kirin Brewery Company, Limited, which had held the top spot from 1954 to 2000. Aiding Asahi's surge to the top was the 1987 introduction of Asahi Super Dry, which in a decade became the top-selling beer in Japan, a position it held into the early 21st century; in 2000 Asahi Super Dry was the number four beer brand in the world, with shipments of 20.9 million barrels. Other domestic brands include Kuronama, Fujisan, Super Malt, and Honnama, the latter being Asahi's entrée into the burgeoning happoshu (low-malt) category. Asahi is very active overseas and has built a network of alliances with such major brewers as Molson and Miller in North America and Bass and Löwenbräu in Europe, as well as making aggressive moves to capture a major share of the emerging market in China. In addition to its brewery operations, which account for about 75 percent of the company's net sales, Asahi manufactures and markets other alcoholic beverages (including distilled spirits and wines), soft drinks (headed by the flagship Mitsuya Cider), and food products (mainly brewer's yeast extracts and related products); sells pharmaceuticals; and runs restaurants.
Early History
The history of Asahi Breweries is linked with that of virtually every other brewery in Japan. Beer had been introduced to Japan in the mid-1800s. The American in large part responsible for renewing trade relations with Japan, Commodore Matthew Perry, brought several cases of beer to Japan as a gift for the Tokugawa Shogunate. The beverage was so well liked that the Japanese government soon decided to establish a brewing industry. After an extensive search for a suitable area, wild hops were found growing on the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost island in the Japanese archipelago. As a result, in 1876 the Commissioner-General for the development of Hokkaido founded Japan's first brewery in the town of Sapporo. (Coincidentally, the global beer capitols of Munich, Milwaukee, and Sapporo are all located along the 45 degrees north latitude.)
In the late 1880s the government sold its Hokkaido brewery to private interests--and thus the Osaka Beer Brewing Company, Japan Beer Brewery Company, Sapporo Brewery, and Nippon Brewing Company all came into being. In 1888 Hiizu Ikuta was sent to Germany by Osaka Beer Brewing Company to study brewing at the famous School of Weihenstephen in Bavaria. He returned the following year and was appointed manager and technical chief of the Suita Brewery, one of the individual breweries controlled by Osaka. Three years later, in 1892, his creation, Asahi Beer, was released for sale. Osaka was reorganized in 1893 as Osaka Breweries, Ltd.
In 1906 the Osaka Breweries, Sapporo Brewery, and Nippon Brewing Company were amalgamated into the Dai Nippon Brewery Co., Ltd. Asahi, now a separate division of the new company, began a long history of producing nonalcoholic beverages as well as beer. Asahi pioneered the soft drink industry in Japan with both Mitsuya Cider and Wilkinson Tansan, a mineral water. Mitsuya Cider was released for sale in 1907, 17 years after Asahi Beer had first been introduced to the market.
In the years leading up to World War II, particular beer brands tended to dominate local markets. The Asahi brand gained popularity in the Kansai area. The Asahi division expanded in 1921 through the completion of the Hakata brewery and in 1927 with the opening of the Nishinomiya brewery.
Forming Asahi Breweries, Ltd. in 1949
In 1949, as a result of the enactment of the Excessive Economic Power Decentralization Law, Dai Nippon Brewery, which had cornered nearly 70 percent of the beer market in Japan, was divided into two parts--Asahi Beer, Ltd. and Nippon Breweries, Ltd. (the latter later emerged as Sapporo Breweries Limited). In 1951 Asahi introduced Wilkinson Tansan mineral water to the Japanese market. That year also saw the introduction of Japan's first fruit-flavored soft drink, Bireley's Orange. In 1958 the company launched a canned version of Asahi Beer, Japan's first canned beer. Asahi's first plant exclusively devoted to the production of soft drinks was opened in Kashiwa in 1966. Six years later another Asahi soft drink plant began production in Fukushima. By the mid-1970s soft drink sales accounted for 35 percent of the company's total sales.
Asahi also enjoyed other kinds of success. Its Central Research Laboratory, charged primarily with quality control, also developed new products, including "Ebios," a day brewer's yeast renowned in Japan for its medicinal properties; the company introduced Ebios in 1930 and has been manufacturing it ever since. In 1965 laboratory staff invented the world's first outdoor fermentation and lagering tank (the "Asahi Tank"); the West German beer plant construction firm of Ziemann soon negotiated with the company for a license to build the tank.
The early 1970s saw Asahi take its first serious moves outside Japan and in the area of importing. In 1971, in a joint venture with Nikka Whiskey Distilling Company, Asahi established Japan International Liquor to import foreign liquors, primarily Scotch whiskeys (Dewars and King George IV). Also in 1971, Asahi was the first Japanese brewery to have its beer produced overseas under license when it concluded a technical assistance agreement with United Breweries of New Guinea, and a brewery was subsequently constructed at Port Moresby. Two years later Asahi began to import French and German wine. In January 1986 a technology transfer agreement was reached with the San Miguel Corporation of Indonesia for the local production of Asahi beer. Another technical transfer agreement had previously been reached in 1979 with this same company for the use of Asahi's automatic beer gauge system for beer fermentation at other plants under San Miguel control. This system had been jointly developed by Asahi and the Toshiba Corporation.
Asahi entered the restaurant business in the early 1980s. Subsidiary companies--Asahi Kyoei and New Asahi--managed more than 100 restaurants in western and eastern Japan, respectively. The company also entered into a joint venture with the U.S. company Pizza Hut to establish Pizza Hut restaurants in Japan.
Turnaround in Market Share: Mid-1980s
In October 1981 Asahi Chemical Industry (despite their similar names, the companies were not previously related) acquired 22 million shares of Asahi Beer, Ltd. An agreement was concluded between the two companies concerning relations involving personnel, technology, and sales. Asahi Chemical eventually held about 10 percent of Asahi stock, making it one of the brewer's ten largest shareholders.
Another of Asahi's important shareholders at this time was the Sumitomo Group, which held about a 12 percent stake. Over the preceding decades, Asahi's share of the Japanese beer market had declined significantly, from a peak of 36 percent in 1949 to 10 percent in 1981. Among Japanese brewers, Asahi was a distant third, trailing both Kirin and Sapporo Breweries. Executives at Sumitomo Bank had been placed into the president's office starting in the early 1970s, but they were unable to stop the decline. Then in January 1982 another Sumitomo Bank executive, Tsutomu Murai, was sent to Asahi to take over. Murai specialized in turning around troubled companies and had previously helped to rescue Mazda Motor Corporation.
Murai began with a reorganization aimed at improving communication between company departments. He then concluded a series of licensing agreements with foreign companies. In November 1982 the company entered into an agreement with the Löwenbräu Company of West Germany to produce Lowenbrau Beer under license in Japan; production of the German beer began the following April. Asahi also gained needed technical know-how by signing contracts with U.S., British, and German brewers to obtain technology. In 1984 Asahi's soft drink division concluded an agreement with Schweppes, which led to Asahi manufacturing several Schweppes brands in Japan--Tonic Water, Golden French (an apple and ginger drink), Passion Orange, and Grapefruit Dry. Asahi entered into other partnerships, notably to import foreign beers and wines into Japan. Asahi in 1985 formed a partnership with the Australian wine company Lindemann's, after which Asa