Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. has become the first Japanese brewer to become an official sponsor of the Rugby World Cup, betting that the exposure to a worldwide audience will help bolster its strategy of becoming more of a global company.
“This is a great opportunity to raise brand awareness,” Atsushi Katsuki, Asahi’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.
Asahi has spent more than 2 trillion yen ($13.6 billion) since 2016 to expand overseas by acquiring brewers across the world, including Pilsner Urquell and Peroni. At the same time, Asahi is seeking to make Super Dry, which debuted in the late 80s and helped turn Asahi into Japan’s top brewer, into a global beer brand.
Asahi’s beer will be sold exclusively at 9 match venues and 10 fan zones. Katsuki estimates that sales in France, the rugby tournament’s host country, could exceed a year’s worth of sales in the country during roughly two months of matches. While the brewer doesn’t have a manufacturing base in France, it is taking all possible measures to ensure an adequate supply of beer, the CEO added.
Heineken NV was the official brewer for the last Rugby World Cup, held in 2019 in Japan, and a sponsor with the organizer since 1995. Asahi was the seventh largest in the world in terms of sales volume in 2022, about a quarter of that of Heineken, the world’s No. 2 brewer, according to Euromonitor International.
While Asahi hasn’t set a sales target for this year’s competition, Katsuki expects that retail volumes will exceed 3 million liters in France.
