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.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last