Photo/Illutration Sapporo Breweries Ltd. President Hiroyuki Nose during an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward (Yuji Yamashita)

Sapporo Breweries Ltd.’s acquisition of Stone Brewing Co., a craft beer producer based in California, has given the Japanese brand a couple of bases to expand in the United States.

Stone Brewing operates breweries on both the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic coasts, which Sapporo will use to produce its own products from next year.

Sapporo’s subsidiary, Sapporo U.S.A. Inc., bought Stone Brewing for $168 million in August. The deal was announced in June.

Currently, Sapporo beer products sold in the United States are produced in factories in Canada and Vietnam.

With its acquisition of Stone Brewing, Sapporo has secured production bases in the United States that can help reduce logistics costs under the current export setup.

Sapporo started exporting beer to the United States in 1964. Its Sapporo Premium Beer and other products are sold at mass retailers there.

Its sales in the United States have been increasing, except for 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and hit a record $71 million in 2021.

Sapporo set a goal of raising its overseas sales by at least 1.7 times from 2021 by 2026.

“We want to fit in the everyday lives of people in the United States,” Sapporo President Hiroyuki Nose said.

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Nose shared his company’s plans to expand operations in the United States and promote the beer brand.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

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Question: Why did Sapporo acquire U.S. craft beer maker Stone Brewing?

Nose: We started exporting Sapporo brand beers to the United States in 1964. We had record sales last year, making us a top-class beer company among Asian competitors.

However, even if our sales increased, our profit did not necessarily grow. We bring beers produced in Canada and Vietnam into the United States, and sea freight charges have increased, not to mention transportation costs and storage fees in the United States. We weren’t making much profit.

We wanted factories in the United States so that we could deliver products to important bases, such as the states of California, Texas, Florida and New York.

But if we were to build factories on our own, it would take time, and we would need to train employees.

Stone Brewing has factories on both the east and west coasts of the United States, while half of its production capacity had remained untapped.

Q: What’s behind the increasing sales of Sapporo brand products in the United States?

A: We have experienced many changes during our more than 50 years of business in the United States. Thanks to the Japanese food boom, many sushi restaurants have opened there, and we entered the market as a Japanese beer maker.

The Silver Cup (650-milliliter canned beer), which was originally sold in Japan, also became popular in the United States. The beer has been increasingly sold not only at Japanese supermarkets but also at Costco and other mass retailers.

Q: What is the sales goal in the United States?

A: The Sapporo brand sold 5.68 million cases in overseas markets last year, with about half of the amount sold in the United States.

We plan to sell 10 million cases abroad by 2026. We will concentrate our resources in Canada and Asia, in addition to the United States.

Q: Stone Brewing’s flagship craft beer, Stone IPA, is also sold in Japan. Are there any immediate plans to further push this beer in Japan?

A: It has many unique features, including its package design. And one of the purposes of the acquisition was to obtain a unique and strong brand.

But for now, we have no plans to expand its sales in Japan. We have other priorities in Japan.

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