Brazilian supermarket chain Grupo Pao de Acucar SA has teamed-up with a local brewery to launch its own craft beer brand, a move likely to boost the share of in-house products in its total sales to over 20% in 2020, an executive said.
The local subsidiary of France's Casino Guichard Perrachon SA currently offers its customers over 2,000 in-house products from various categories, representing approximately 13% of total sales, according to its most recent earnings report.
Beer Launch
GPA's launch of its "Fábrica 1959" beer brand comes amid growing consumer interest in craft beers around the world.
"We sell almost 20 million bottles of craft beer per year, and it's a market with high growth potential, as consumers increasingly migrate from mainstream brands," GPA's director of exclusive brands, Samir Jarrouj, told Reuters in an interview.
The company expects its Fábrica 1959 brand to represent 25% of all craft beer sales by the end of 2020, he said. More than 600 Extra and Pão de Açúcar stores across Brazil will sell Fabrica 1959, as well as GPA's e-commerce platforms.
Investment
Jarrouj declined to reveal how much GPA is investing in the beer and other in-house products.
The retailer started its craft beer project more than two years ago, when it teamed up with the Imigração brewery and the Brazilian Beer Institute to develop its own recipes for Pilsen, Witbier, Weiss and India Pale Ale, Jarrouj said.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
