Brau Beviale 2012: Tradition, innovation and naturalness

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Brau Beviale starts a day earlier in 2012 – on Tuesday, 13 November. Some 1,350 exhibitors and a good 31,500 visitors can look forward to the beverage industry's most important capital goods exhibition in the world this year. Although the event focuses on innovations in the segments of beverage raw materials, technologies, logistics and marketing, Nürnberg also creates impulses for international beverage trends.

The Asian market breaks growth records and produces beverage ideas that have a stimulating impact all over the world. The keywords here are tradition in conjunction with innovation and health. So-called innovative drinks contain ingredients that have long been valued, like tea extracts or elderberry blossom syrup. Regionality coupled with trust in domestic products is doing well under the "back to the roots" aspect. It becomes interesting when drinks create links with other consumption worlds and cross-selling strategies take effect. Also important is that every successful beverage innovation is always supported by a matching container.

Soft drinks more popular than ever worldwide

The global market for soft drinks grew by about 4 % in 2011, mainly thanks to Asia, whose markets accounted for 60 % of the global growth. Asia is currently the biggest player in the soft drinks segment with a share of 27 %. North America holds only just under 20 % and Western Europe 17 %. In 2005, North America still occupied first place with a quarter of global sales. The annual per head consumption in Asia is 40 l. Compared with European and North American consumers, this is only one sixth or one eighth respectively and shows the high future growth potential. Growth can also be expected for soft drinks in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. The markets in Western and Eastern Europe are stagnating.

Beer market: two billion hectolitre mark to be topped by 2013

The global beer market is growing – and reached a good 1.9 billion hl (+2.8 %) in 2011. The global per head consumption of beer rose by half a litre to 27.6 l. The American market with a per head consumption of 61.1 l leads Europe (59.3 l) and Asia/Pacific (18 l). Bringing up the rear are Africa and the Middle East (9.1 l, Plato Logic). Global beer consumption is to rise to 2 billion hl by 2013. Asia will also contribute the largest share of this in the future. In China alone, beer sales are to grow to more than 600 million hl by 2016. This means almost twice as much beer is sold in China as in the second largest beer market, the USA (Canadean). Premium beer brands are enjoying ever greater popularity in China and other Asian markets. Their share of Chinese beer consumption reached some 10 % in 2011 (chinabevnews). A strong rise in beer consumption is also expected in Latin America, especially in Brazil (Canadean).

Whereas market researchers assume a slight recovery of beer markets in Eastern Europe by 2016, they forecast slight losses for Western Europe (Canadean). The average West European drank 67.8 l of beer in 2011, the East European 59.4 l – figures that could certainly become similar in future. The Czechs (147.4 l) again had the biggest thirst for beer in Europe in 2011, followed by the Austrians (108.5 l, Plato Logic) and Germans (102 l).

US craft brewers show the way – European MicroBrew Symposium

The US market has long since demonstrated that innovative beer ideas are welcomed by consumers. Craft brewers there have achieved one new success after another with a wide variety of creative beer variants. More than 2, 000 craft brewers are meanwhile registered in the USA. In 2011 alone, there were 250 new openings as opposed to only 37 closures. Craft brewers brewed about 5.7 % of the US beer volume (+0.7 %) in 2011 (Brewers Association).

A development towards individual, craft-brewed beers can now also be observed in many European countries. This will also become clear at the European Beer Star Award, one of the world’s most important beer competitions, which pays tribute to genuine beers of real character and high quality at Brau Beviale. The first “European MicroBrew Symposium – Market, Trends and Technology” takes up this trend on 12/13 November 2012, immediately before the exhibition.

Package communicates product

An essential feature for all beverage categories worldwide: The product and package must form one unit that communicates perfectly with the planned consumer target group at the point of sale. Experts forecast more growth for PET drink bottles on the world markets. The most recent development projects are in the direction of organic PET bottles, which consist completely of vegetable raw materials and are said to be fully recyclable and suitable for large-scale production. PET bottles have also long since appealed in aesthetic terms. Nevertheless, premium drinks often continue to use glass, and bottles from a star designer are welcome.

In the can segment, the USA leads with an annual per head consumption of 290 canned drinks, a figure that can hardly be topped according to experts. In all other regions of the world, however, the manufacturers expect more growth: more likely in the single-figure percentage range in Europe, but certainly a two-figure amount in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Cans are also becoming more popular again in Germany. More than a billion drink cans were sold again in 2011, the first time since the introduction of the deposit on disposable containers in 2003. Of interest here are the many possibilities for individual design: digital printing, embossed cans, matt finishes, drink cans that emit fragrances, or cans with integrated “floating capsules”, whose contents are not released until the can is opened. Cans are also capturing new target groups for traditional drinks like cider.

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