Carlsberg has launched two significant partnerships with Southeast Asian brewers in a concerted regional effort to enter the craft beer market.
In Vietnam, Pasteur Street Brewing Company (PSBC) has launched a partnership with Carlsberg to take over the craft brewery’s distribution network, a deal that is likely the first of its type in Vietnam.
PSBC’s Cyclo Stout struck World Beer Cup Gold in 2016
A Carlsberg spokesperson officially confirmed to Asia Brewers Network that the partnership had kicked off this year.
“Carlsberg Vietnam will be distributing the portfolio of Pasteur Street Brewing Company’s products. For the moment we will not be releasing any further statements linked to the partnership.”
PSBC were one of the early movers in the Vietnam craft beer scene, launching in January 2015. In 2016 they won a coveted World Beer Cup Gold Medal for their Cyclo Imperial Chocolate Stout. They have gone on to build a prominent presence in the domestic craft beer market and open several taprooms in Ho Chi Minh City & Hanoi.
Nobody at PSBC was available to comment on the partnership.
Similarly in Cambodia, Asia Brewers Network also understands that Carlsberg has recently partnered with Kingdom Breweries to distribute the latter’s range of beer in Phnom Penh and beyond.
Kingdom Breweries was founded in Phnom Penh in 2008, in recent years they have seen great success in contract brewing for brewers around the region
While Carlsberg’s involvement in the craft beer industry extends for decades in Europe, in Asia the Danish brewing giant has been much slower to advance.
Carlsberg’s launch of a limited range of regionally brewed Brooklyn Brewery beers in Asia around in the mid-2010s signalled the opening salvo of their move into craft beer.
The brewing firm had also previously been more focused on the Chinese market, with the opening of a dedicated craft and speciality brewery facility in China’s Anhui Province in 2019.
Carlsberg also bought a minority stake in Beijing-based Jing-A Brewery in 2019 in a move that promised to improve distribution, and one that may ultimately be similar to the deal with PSBC & Kingdom once further details are announced in annual reports or business filings.
We expect to see further moves by global brewing giants taking advantage of emerging post-COVID conditions to further invest or partner with craft breweries in the region.
