The world’s second biggest brewer, it operates in the Chinese marketplace through its 49% stake in China Resources Snow Breweries (CR Snow)The world’s second biggest brewer, it operates in the Chinese marketplace through its 49% stake in China Resources Snow Breweries (CR Snow).

I’m interested in learning how SABMiller calculated its marketshare because a simple shelf space analysis of who has the largest market suggests that SABMiller is far from the leader. While Snow Beer, in addition to it’s “home base” of Liaoning Province, seems to be gaining shelf space in the bigger markets of Shanghai and Beijing…beer sales (other then the national brand Tsingtao which is partnered with Budweiser) still seem to be dominated by local breweries. Indeed it seems that in some areas such as Beijing, local breweries (read: Yanjing Beer) seem to do everything they can to keep non-local (both foreigh and domestic) out of consumer’s eyesight which all but guarantees consumption of local brands over others. For anyone that has had bad luck to drink Yanjing that is not optimal situation.

SABMiller ‘top China beer seller’