By Clyde Mooney – editor Australian Hotelier
In a first for Australia and craft beer, the Australian Brewery (AB) has secured a deal to send its award-winning Pale Ale – in cans – to the world’s biggest untapped beer market.
At the invitation of Austrade and the Craft Beer Industry Association (CBIA), the brewery sent its marketing manager and ‘canbassador’ David Ward to India to present at the Australian Craft Beer promotion, in Delhi.
The result was offers from two distributors to import the Rouse Hill brewery’s flagship beer into the second-most populous country, which has almost no quality beers on the market.
“The big local brands such as Kingfisher are launching premium variations to their existing product for the burgeoning middle- and upper-classes,” Ward told TheShout.
“But it’s a little strange to go into a bottle shop and there are so few beers; there are some European premiums, couple of micro-breweries starting up, but there aren’t really any craft beers there – we’ll be the first.
“Austrade were fantastic; everybody was really keen to get us board.”
The AB is preparing to dispatch its first 250 cases, and Ward says although they are starting with just the one distributor they hope export will grow to about 2-3 containers annually.
He confirmed the deal will likely stretch their production capacity and says the young hotel brewery is already planning an expansion, with a DA already approved and capital in place.
Still, the family-owned operation is not resting on its laurels, with plans to explore other export opportunities.
“We have our eye on the American market, and are in discussion with an importer in Japan,” said Ward.