The Prague Post
http://www.aaaradiotaxi.cz/index.php?xSET=lang&xLANG=2
December 2nd, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague accommodation

Home » Archives » Business

The new brews

Prazdroj and Budvar roll out fresh brands

By Paul Voosen
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 18th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Plzeňský Prazdroj's new beer, Master, which comes in dark and half-dark varieties, could sell well in Scandinavia.
Two of the country’s largest brewers have a simple question for you: Are you a Pardál or a Master?
For the first time in their modern history, Plzeňský Prazdroj and Budějovický Budvar have introduced beers to the Czech Republic that are wholly divorced from their respective flagship brands, Pilsner Urquell and Budvar.
The new beers — Budvar’s prole-inspired Pardál and Prazdroj’s history-soaked Master — together represent a jostling to the yeasty vat that is traditional Czech beer culture, and a new level of competition between the rivals.
“Budvar wants to steal some of Prazdroj’s customers,” said Tomáš Erlich, chairman of the Czech Beer Consumer’s Union. “They want to grab the attention of people who don’t like Budvar but who would be interested in drinking something slightly different.”
The companies began selling the beers almost simultaneously: Master April 11, Pardál March 1. For now, Pardál is available only in south Bohemia, Budvar’s home region, while Master can be found on draft at 44 pubs across the country.
The selective distribution of Master, which comes in dark and half-dark varieties and only in 15-liter (3.96-gallon) kegs, is one of a raft of differences between the beers and their marketing. Budvar boasts of the role everyday beer drinkers had in shaping Pardál, while Prazdroj cites half-remembered manuscripts from the 16th century as inspiration.

COURTESY PHOTO
Budvar's Pardál beer, introduced last month, is seen as a competitor to Gambrinus and Staropramen for the mainstream beer market.
But if the beers couldn’t be less similar, their brewers are capitalizing on the same market moment, as suggested by their research: Czechs are becoming more open to new brands of beer. This is seen in both the inching progress made by imports among younger drinkers and the expansion of domestic microbreweries.
“There are more than 60 microbreweries that make completely new brands of beer,” said Petr Samec, spokesman for Budvar. “Ten years ago, there were just 10.”
Microbrews draw young drinkers, who also sample imports such as Guinness or off-beat varieties like ginger beer. Prazdroj’s Master could draw their interest, Erlich said, though the price — one keg of dark sells for 615 Kč ($29.50), or 16.40 Kč per glass wholesale — could be an impediment.
“Remember, young people want to be different from their parents, so they search for something else to wear or drink,” Erlich said.
It’s also possible that only one of the brewers saw space opening up for a new beer, Erlich said.
“The corporate spies of the beer companies work very well,” he said. “Just look at a couple of years ago, when every brewer wanted to have a beer glass with a distinctive shape. Look at the shapes now. They’re all about the same.”
Bar panthers
Budvar decided to develop its new beer in 2005, after the company saw that it had no beer for mainstream drinkers, who toss back Staropramen or Gambrinus (the latter owned by Prazdroj).
Developing a new brand was necessary for Budvar’s entry into the mainstream market, Samec said.
“Pardál is not a competitor with Budvar,” he said. “Budweiser Budvar beers have a lot of fans, and we want to preserve the brand.”
What the brewery developed last fall was a classic Czech beer that was darker, richer and bitterer than Budvar. That’s when the beer’s development took a populist twist.
While no company is a stranger to consumer testing, Budvar has taken its efforts a step further, boasting of their attempts to adapt Pardál to the Czech palate.
“We consulted 300 consumers, mainly those who were not fans of Budvar beers,” Samec said. There were three rounds of tasting, and after each the brewers tweaked the beer to the tasters’ specifications.
“We can truly say we’ve made a beer that the consumers want,” he said.
Complementing the plebeian approach is the beer’s name, which means panther in colloquial Czech. “It’s Czech pub slang,” Samec said. “It’s used for someone who is relaxed, who has natural authority and a lot of life experiences.”
The Pardál introduction has gone well for Budvar, with sales four times higher than expected, the company said. Bottles retail for about 8.30 Kč in south Bohemia.
The decision on whether to roll the beer out to the rest of country remains to be made, Samec said.
Old master
Prazdroj has gone ahead with a national introduction, backed by SABMiller, the international beer giant that bought Prazdroj back in 1999. It’s the first time under SABMiller that the brewery has developed a new beer, said Vladimír Jurina, a corporate brand manager at the company.
“We saw an opportunity to introduce a new kind of beer onto the market,” said Derek Jones, marketing director at Prazdroj. “It is a very traditional beer culture here, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We just want to refresh some ideas.”
The brewery cites an 1858 manuscript by Tadeáš Hájek, in which Hájek describes a dark bitter beer finely balanced with caramel. Brewmasters at Prazdroj — Czech brewmasters, the company emphasizes — translated this into Master.
The company’s first goal is to establish Master domestically, but SABMiller, which promotes Pilsner Urquell as its flagship brand, has high hopes to export Master, possibly to Scandinavia, Jones said.
Exports to countries that lack premium brands, such as Sweden, makes sense, Erlich said. But don’t expect the company to enter well-established markets.
“They definitely won’t bring Master to Germany,” he said.
— Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Paul Voosen can be reached at pvoosen@praguepost.com


Other articles in Business (18/04/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.