6. Tsingtao Beer
Overall position: 31
Category: Alcohol
Brand value: US$1.72bn
Tsingtao has been promoting its brand hard with a series of beer festivals to touch on the growing consumer need to better balance work and leisure.
Founded by German settlers in 1903, and one of China’s oldest beer brands, Tsingtao Beer is now distributed to more than 80 countries and regions.
Tsingtao Beer has also strengthened its operations over the last year, adding plants in Jiangxi and Henan Provinces, where it didn’t previously have capacity. It also completed a strategic arrangement with Japan’s Suntory to increase efficiency by integrating production and sales in Shanghai and Jiangsu Province.
In addition, the brand added a potentially important new sales channel with the launch of a flagship store on Tmall, China’s popular online shopping portal. The location of the original Tsingtao Beer brewery was a focal point of the twenty-third annual Qingdao International Beer Festival.