Thai Beverage, a Singapore S t o c k E x c h a n g e – l i s t e d beverage company from Thailand, has acquired a 75 per cent stake in Myanmar Distillery Company (MDC), the maker of Myanmar’s famous Grand Royal whisky, for a reported $494.4 million. MDC, the largest spirits c o m p a n y i n M y a n m a r , produces a range of whiskies and gins alongside Grand Royal through its facilities Yangon and Mandalay. The Grand Royal range has nearly 70 per cent share of Myanmar’s whisky market. This purchase allows Thai Beverage to enter Myanmar’s growing wine, beer and spirits market and its distribution and supply chain. Thai Beverage, which already controls 90 per cent of the drinks market in Thailand, is targeting to become the biggest beverage company in Southeast Asia by 2020. In 2013 also, the company acquired Singapore beverage producer Fraser & Neave for $11.2 billion.
biggest beverage company in Southeast Asia by 2020. In 2013 also, the company acquired Singapore beverage producer Fraser & Neave for $11.2 billion. Myanmar is one of the five largest markets globally for the combined international – non-Scotch – whisky category, according to a joint-research released in September by drinks and beverage news website justdrinks.com and The IWSR, the world-leading database service for the beverage alcohol market with a 40-years history. Thai Beverage, better known as Thai Bev, is Thailand’s largest and one of South-east Asia’s largest beverage companies. Brands under the banner of Thai Beverage include Beer Chang, Archa Beer, Federbrau Beer, SangSom Special Rum and Blend 285 malt whiskey.
In Myanmar, beer makes up around 80 per cent of the country’s beverage consumption. Global market intelligence publisher Euromonitor has projected that Myanmar’s beer market will almost double in value from $375 million in 2015 to $675 million by 2018.
