Sapporo's Integration Chimes Well With BMI's Forecasts

Japanese brewer Sapporo recently announced plans to merge two of its Japanese subsidiaries in a bid to consolidate a stronger position in the country's food and soft drink markets. The brewer plans to merge its Sapporo Beverage Company and Pokka Corporation units to create a new entity Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage. The integrated company is expected to be fully operational from January 2013. In an earlier article (see 'Sapporo Adopts Twin-Pronged Approach To Revitalise Growth', March 2), we noted that Sapporo arguably needs to beef up its much-needed product and geographical diversification push in order to make what goes on in the Japanese beer market less important to its performance. Sapporo clearly recognises this need, and its move to integrate its subsidiaries ties in well with BMI's expectations of soft drink and food sector outperformance in Japan.

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