Charles Glass says 你好

Snow (雪花) beer is a Chinese brand owned by China Resources Brewery, a subsidiary of SABMiller, the South African brewing giant.

Like MIH, the South African media company that has become one of the biggest foreign investors in Chinese media through their sizable stakes in Beijing Media Corporation and Tencent (the company behind QQ), SABMiller has been quietly but steadily increasing their presence in China over the last decade.

Unlike most foreign breweries, SABMiller has chosen to acquire and enhance local brands and breweries, instead of introducing imported brands. While Heineken, Carlsburg and other foreign brands have started making inroads into premium urban markets, others have failed completely; Fosters for example was forced to dump their entire China operation several years ago because the numbers just weren't adding up.

By contrast, SABMiller acquired the Snow brand from a Shenyang brewery, and has since been buying up other provinical breweries, modernizing their operations and then enjoying the economies of scale and distribution advantages that a nationally managed brand can leverage.

AllAfrica.com today reports:

SABMiller Expands in China to Open Way for Snow Brand

SABmiller is to extend its reach in China with the purchase of a 100% equity interest in the Zhejiang Yinyan Brewery and the brewing-related assets of the Anhui Huaibei Xiangwang Brewery through its Chinese associate, China Resources Snow Breweries...

...SABMiller said its national beer brand, Snow, would be produced [at the newly acquired breweries] as soon as it was practical and once the acquisition had been completed...

...[Snow's] total sales volumes increased 47% last year to 15,8-million hectolitres. Snow has a 13% share in the world's largest beer market...

...But SABMiller's effort to create a national footprint for Snow has seen it go head to head with Tsingtao Brewery.

SABMiller's main competitor in the US, Anheuser-Busch, holds a 27% interest in Tsingtao, which has a 15%-16% share of the Chinese market.

Snow grew 52% to 17,3-million hectolitres for the year ended March, making it the number one brand in China by volume.