SAB to relaunch iconic Grolsch in R30m campaign

The breweries will spend about R30m relaunching a super premium beer that commands about 0,01% of the local market.

The iconic swing-top Grolsch beer will be brought in by SAB, which has about 90% of the market, from June 23. SA is the first market into which the beer is being relaunched.

The campaign, including TV advertising, will cost $4m. Pick n Pay paid R110m to relaunch its brand last year.

The beer sells for R24,50 for a swing top bottle at a top Johannesburg liquor outlet but is on special at Spar Tops outlets at R59,99 for a 1,5l bottle.

SAB will import the 450ml swing top and a 330ml dumpie sealed with a flat-sided crown lid from the Grolsch brewery in the Netherlands in non-returnable packaging.

Dirk Kotze, an analyst at Coronation Fund Managers, said that while there was a place in SAB's portfolio for a Dutch heritage beer such as Grolsch, it would be competing head on with Amstel and Heineken, both already established in the market.

He said much of the brew's success would be up to marketing it successfully. Unlike Peroni, which had a unique brand proposition, Grolsch was entering a space in which there was already competition. SAB would put the beer into the market at a competitive price, and was expected to back it up with marketing, but it was not clear how successful it would be, he said.

SAB communications manager Janine van Stolk said the launch was the “first market outing for Grolsch under the SABMiller banner”.

More expensive

Grolsch in bottles sealed with a crown lid not the swing top is expected to be 5%-8% more expensive than Heineken, with which it will compete head on.

Peroni, which came in about two years ago, was SAB's most recent international launch. It cost a similar amount to launch in relative terms, said Van Stolk, and doubled in volume last year.

Grolsch has been launched into a segment that is growing at 20%-25% a year. SAB expects to grow the brand through its marketing and distribution machines. Van Stolk said it would also be cheaper than current levels as SAB would import greater volumes.

SABMiller said in November it would buy Grolsch for € 816m to expand its premium portfolio.

SAB MD Tony van Kralingen said the company had been developing a “strong portfolio of local and international premium brands” and that Grolsch would “play a pivotal role in this fast-growing segment”.

Grolsch is part of SABMiller's global premium brand portfolio, which includes Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Pilsner Urquell and Miller Genuine Draft.

The group, the world's largest brewer, also said yesterday it would acquire Russian brewer Vladpivo for an undisclosed amount. Vladpivo, its third facility in the region, is the largest brewer in the Russian Far East Primorie region, and has an annual capacity of a million hectolitres.

SABMiller would acquire assets worth $69m in a region that represented about 7,6% of the Russian beer market, and was expected to grow faster than the total Russian beer market from last year to 2013.

Source: Business Day

Published courtesy of