Devassa turns premium, but company promises competitive price

São Paulo-Brazil Kirin relaunched one of its major brands, the Lecherous, deciding to abandon the most popular formula of the drink, called "Blonde", and betting only on the premium version, made with pure malt and without the addition of other cereals such as corn and rice.
The change resulted in brand repositioning, which will account for an important part of the marketing budget of 400 million R$ of the company for the year.
Despite the new appeal, the Vice President of marketing and commercial strategy of Brazil Kirin, Minás Vourodimos, States that the prices will be closer to the mass market brands.
The idea is that to be a product of salacious intermediate between the most popular brand of the group, Schin, and other special beers such as Eisenbahn.
The Executive admits that the current scenario of the industry has been less favourable to sales in volume, but considers that the company has at the moment a chance to capture an audience that aspires to premium beers, but which today is facing a moment of less disposable income.
Beer production in Brazil has been dropping just a backdrop of retraction on disposable income and at a time when costs of breweries increased due mainly to high in state tax rates.
Vourodimos assesses, however, that the second half may bring some recovery for the sector. "Already there has been some resumption of consumer confidence and the market of beer usually recover very quickly, so the industry should be a good thermometer that expected recovery in the economy," he says.
According to data presented by the company, the premium beer brands hold today 5.7% of the market of beer while the bakery products, called "mainstream", 68% were still in 2015. The slice of mainstream beers, however, have fallen compared to 72% in 2014.
For Vourodimos, the beer market has become more complex in recent years, with the proliferation of new brands, international & special breweries. This is one of the factors that contributed to the company''s decision to resume the origins brand Devassa, which emerged as an artisanal product in Rio de Janeiro before being acquired by the group.