Beer Market In Norway Essay Research Paper

Beer Market In Norway Essay, Research Paper Beer Market in Norway By Nathan S Hosley The beer industry is an ever present and growing industry in Norway. The people of Norway have a long history of drinking beer. Even though the tax on beer is the second highest in the world Norwegians continue to drink copiously. Norwegians spend more money on beer per capita than any other nationality. (Turborg P1) Norwegians are very proud of their country and it is not an easy task to compete with local products (Tuborg P1), thus, there is not a heavy market saturation of imported beer in Norway. Heineken, Guinness, Beck’s, Mac Ewan’s, Newcastle Brown ale, Carlsberg, Tuborg and a few others are available but mostly in bottles, hardly ever on tap. (Burzlaff P1) The imported beer

industry is there and seems ripe for someone like our company to move in on. But before jumping in we must ask ourselves some very important questions. Is there going to be enough profit to warrant a full-scale campaign? Are the people of Norway too proud of their own country’s products to purchase much U.S. imported beer? Is the future of beer sales in Norway growing or declining? Is the competition in Norway too fierce with the few imports already there being major players in the European market? What about the country itself? Is it stable and what about its infrastructure? In the next few pages I will try to address these questions and give a personal viewpoint on whether or not to attempt to enter this market with a U.S. product. Is there going to be enough profit to

warrant a full-scale campaign? The people of Norway spend more per capita than any other nation on beer. But, the government also charges the second highest taxes on beer in the World. Pripps-Ringnes, the largest beer producer in Norway, claims that on a Single bottle of beer sold for 11.55nok 7.40 goes to taxes, 1.05 goes to deposit and only 3.10 is left for expenses and profit. (Pripps-Ringness P1) This means that only a small percentage of income is available to pay for the shop’s mark up, ingredients, packaging, production, distribution, wages, marketing etc. Still, we must also realize that the alcohol consumption in Norway is rising and is almost at an all time high with 1987 as the only year higher than last year. (Ssb P1) Are the people of Norway too proud of their

country’s products to purchase much imported beer? The Norwegians are a very proud people with strong ties to local brands. Almost every town in Norway has its own brewpub and locals are very loyal. Until 1976 importers could only sell their beers to the Norwegian Court and Embassies. (Tuborg P1) The people of Norway are spread out and live mostly in rural areas where new things tend to take a while to reach and even then the people don’t like to change the way they have been doing things for years. That is one of the main reasons there are so few imports in the country and why the ones that are there aren’t doing well or advancing in market share. The ones that are successful are the very large transnational corporations. The largest segment of people in Norway are age 25

to 35 with a high number of singles between 25 and 30 and a much lower number between 30 and 35. (Ssb P1) This is a young, professional market of people who want to go out and show off, so to speak, meet people and party before they settle down and it’s too late. The average income of families aged 30 to 35 with small children has grown 21 percent in the last ten years. (Ssb P 1) This shows a greater purchasing power which could be transformed into beer sales at both bars and at home. This shows that it might not really be a lack of interest in foreign beer but possibly the lack of foreign beer itself and the previous absence of extra income to warrant the more expensive imported beer. Is the future of beer sales in Norway growing or declining? There seems to be a strong and