China’s GDP growth throughout the 1990s was 10 percent; and projected GDP growth for 2001-2005 is 8 percent.
In spite of these rosy statistics, the level of consolidation of the global beer industry was quite low, indicating the difficulty of gaining market share, the presence of intense competition and the localized nature of the beer industry.
The top five competitors globally had only 28 percent combined market share, as compared with 94 percent for the soft-drink industry, and 43 percent for the spirits industry.