What do Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, underage drinking and Pakistan’s only beer maker have in common?
It was the arrest of the Hollywood stars’ daughter in New York with a can of Murree Brewery’s beer in June that propelled the company out of obscurity and into the spotlight.
Inundated with e-mails asking about its beer, Murree Brewery seized on the free publicity to launch expansion plans outside the Muslim nation, where alcohol is banned and those that do drink can become targets of Taliban militants and Islamist fundamentalists.
Photo: Reuters
Five months since the arrest, the 150-year-old company says it has lined up distributors that could see its flagship beer arrive on liquor store shelves in the US and Dubai as early as the first quarter of next year.
“Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ daughter gave us multi-million dollars worth of publicity by default. We plan to go to the United States and make a queue to hug both the daughter and the mother,” Sabih ur Rehman, special assistant to the chief executive, joked with reporters.
Murree Brewery, established in 1860 by British colonial rulers to supply beer to their troops, is desperately looking for business overseas to hedge against its uncertain domestic market. Prohibition was imposed in Pakistan in 1977, and non-Muslims and foreigners must obtain a government permit to purchase alcohol at designated retailers, mainly upscale hotels.
Relying on word of mouth and an influx of thirsty diplomats and foreign investors, annual alcohol sales have grown an average of 20 percent over the past five years, reaching US$26.8 million this financial year. The company’s stock is up 175 percent so far this year, trading at 160 rupees on Tuesday, far outpacing the 42 percent rise in the Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark index.
Despite its strong sales, the company’s net profit after taxes rose a mere 1 percent year-on-year to 525 million Pakistan rupees (US$5.48 million) for the year ended on June 30, due to an increase in alcohol taxes and rising labor costs.
Murree Brewery chief executive Isphanyar Bhandara lives in constant fear that authorities will shut down alcohol production at any moment as Pakistan drifts towards a more conservative interpretation of Islam.
“Pakistan is moving more and more to the right. That is not good for Pakistan and not good for us,” the 39-year-old executive said at his office in Rawalpindi, a military city just outside the capital, Islamabad
To ensure its survival, the brewery, which employs 1,100 people, has turned to Europe to produce its beer for overseas consumption due to a Pakistani government ban on alcohol exports, which was eased just recently.
The Pakistani brewery said it has reached an agreement with the Czech Republic’s Zatec Brewery to produce at least 5,000 cases, each containing 24 bottles of Murree Beer, annually from next year. That amount will double in 2015, Rehman said.
However, Zatec Brewery managing director Martin Kec said he knew nothing of this arrangement and his firm had only produced a very small amount of Murree Beer in the past.
Murree Brewery also said it has lined up distributors in Texas, Dubai and Denmark to market and sell its lager under franchise agreements, and is looking for partners in Britain and other European countries.
“We are virgins and we are looking for husbands,” said Bhandara, whose family is from the country’s non-Muslim Parsi minority.
However, Murree Beer faces a difficult road as a new player in the crowded US and European markets, dominated by the industry’s “big four” — Anheuser-Busch InBev, SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg.
The company’s last attempt to break into Western markets failed after it was forced to end its partnership with an Austrian brewery due to high costs and logistical problems.
Analysts say a few tabloid headlines will not be enough to be successful and Murree will also need a multimillion dollar promotional campaign. It is also unclear the type of consumer they are trying to sell their beer to, since most Pakistanis living abroad are Muslim and unlikely to drink alcohol.
“They are never going to be anything but a very niche player. It’s unlikely they will be able to push as hard as major brewers with their own niche lagers,” said a London-based stock analyst, who asked not to be identified because he did not cover Murree Brewery.
However, company officials are hopeful, particularly for the US market.
“Americans will drink anything. They are like fish,” Rehman said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure