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A cool brew from Brazil

With imports showing some of the only growth in U.S. sales, Brazil's popular Brahma makes its debut.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published June 11, 2005

[Times photo: Bill Serne]

Chad Silva restocks beers Thursday at Shep's Food Mart in St. Petersburg. Silva said he will soon offer Brahma beer, which is being launched in 15 countries this year. It arrives in the United States in California and Florida, at $7.99 for a six-pack.

	[Brahma Beer]
	Brahma created this clear, specially shaped bottle for sales outside Brazil.
	[Times photo: Bill Serne]
	Shep's Food Mart at 2001 Fourth St. N in St. Petersburg keeps more than 600 brands of beer on the shelves. Imports are one sign of growth in U.S. beer sales as young people flocked to other drinks.

Stare at the curvy, clear bottle long enough and you'll swear it's swaying effortlessly to a samba beat.

That's the big idea behind the distinctive bottle and the flashy Rio-red packaging of the next imported beer trying to make a splash in Florida.

The top-selling beer in Brazil, Rio-brewed Brahma debuts this week in Tampa Bay area bars, package stores and supermarkets. At $7.99 a six-pack, it's priced as a high-margin import for grocers trying to woo adventurous young men from the low-margin, high-volume stable of Anheuser-Busch brews that control most of the shelf space.

Unlike Corona, a Mexican brew half-owned by Anheuser-Busch that markets itself as an escape, this South American lager wrapped itself in the Brazilian imagery of looking cool without really trying.

"Brahma is about living life to the fullest in an urban environment, not escaping to some remote beach," said Mark King, southern division director for InBev S.A. Nonetheless, Brahma copied the idea of a clear bottle from Corona.

Brahma's arrival is the latest chapter in a larger story unfolding in the rapidly consolidating global brewing industry. It's playing out in the gridlock of grocery store beer coolers and an ever-widening lineup of draft beer choices in bars and restaurants.

Imports are one of the only signs of growth in U.S. beer sales that have been stagnant for years as young people flocked to other drinks. The trend has Heineken testing its first light beer this summer, and the company has included the bay area as a test market. A-B is testing its first energy drink called B-to-the-E that's a mix of beer, ginseng and caffeine.

Global players, such as InBev, a Belgian conglomerate that owns more than 200 brews from Bass Ale, to Labatt to Rolling Rock, have been snapping up regional and national brews worldwide to compete with the remaining giants.

Last year InBev, then known as Interbrew, acquired Brazilian Companhia de Bebidas Americas, a marriage of the world's third- and fifth-largest brewers that created one big enough to leap ahead of Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller as the world biggest producer by volume. InBev also is the biggest distributor of draft beers.

Brahma, which is being launched by its new owners into 15 countries this year, is supposed to become the third big gun, with Beck's and Stella Artois, in InBev's vast arsenal of brands.

"Until now Brahma has only been sold in South America and it's already the eighth best selling beer in the world," King said.

In the bay area, South American beers don't have much of a track record. Polar, a Venezuelan product also owned by InBev, has all but disappeared in a rising sea of imports from the Caribbean.

Brahma's taste is smoother and it has an aftertaste less biting - yes, that is supposed to be a hint of papaya, not citrus - than rivals made for the tropics .

InBev, which hopes to parlay imported Brahma into about $30-million in sales by 2007, is mostly using a word-of-mouth campaign in Florida and California, the states where the brand makes its U.S. landfall. InBev bought product placement in music videos for Rob Thomas' Lonely No More and Fat Joe's Get It Poppin' and was served at a debut party for Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Latino record label. Brahma also will be promoted on billboards and will be the featured beer on the Vans Warped Tour.

But the unusually shaped clear bottle, a key talking point to spread the buzz, was created just to jazz up the export version.

In Brazil, the real thing comes in a conventionally shaped brown glass bottle.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified June 11, 2005, 00:25:17]