SABMiller is starting to gain pricing power in China, in a sign that years of consolidation in the world's largest beer market are starting to bear fruit for industry leaders.
“We will be able to take more incremental price increases,” Ari Mervis, managing director for SABMiller's Asian business and chairman of its joint venture in China, told the Financial Times. “This is unusual in a market that has historically been averse to price rises.”
SABMiller, the world's second-largest brewer, operates in China through its joint venture China Resources Snow Breweries. CRSB owns Snow, the world's best-selling beer brand, which has about a fifth of the Chinese beer market.