Asia Pacific Breweries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asia Pacific Breweries is an Asian brewery company founded as Malayan Breweries Limited (MBL) in 1931, in a joint venture between Heineken and Fraser and Neave, and given its present name in 1990. It currently controls 29 breweries in 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region, selling over 40 brands of beer and beer variants. Heineken is the majority shareholder with a 42.5% stake. The company is listed on the Singapore Exchange.
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[edit] Tiger Beer
Launched in 1932, Tiger Beer is APB's flagship brand. It is a 5% abv bottled pale lager.
[edit] Key brands
The company's main brands are: Tiger Beer, Heineken, Anchor, Baron's Strong Brew and ABC Extra Stout.
[edit] Distribution
APB has breweries in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, India and Sri Lanka. It also has joint ventures in India, Laos and Mongolia, and distributes to over 60 countries worldwide. The company's stronghold is in Asia Pacific, especially in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
In the USA, Tiger Beer's presence is strong in New York, Miami, San Francisco and Boston.
In the UK, Tiger Beer can be found in over 8,000 premium bars/clubs and distribution outlets in UK's major cities such as London, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Inverness, etc.
In March 2006, Anheuser-Busch was appointed the U.S. importer of Tiger Beer. The new agreement significantly broadens Tiger Beer’s U.S. distribution opportunities by giving Asia Pacific Breweries access to Anheuser-Busch’s network of nearly 600 independent wholesalers. In 2005, the brand recorded double-digit growth in the United States.
Tiger Beer gained considerable popularity in Detroit in October 2006 due to the Detroit Tigers entrance into the 2006 World Series.[1]
[edit] Time for a Tiger
The "Time for a Tiger" slogan for Tiger Beer has been used since the 1930s, though today's slogan has been altered slightly to read "Time for Tiger".
The writer Anthony Burgess named his first novel Time for a Tiger (the first part of the Malayan trilogy The Long Day Wanes) after the advertising slogan. The beer was popular in the Malaya of the 1950s, where Burgess was working.
Burgess reveals in his autobiography that, when his Time for a Tiger was published, he asked the manufacturer, then Fraser and Neave, for a complimentary clock with the Tiger beer slogan. The brewery declined to offer this or any other freebie. But fourteen years later, when Burgess was better known, it relented. In 1970 it told Burgess he could consume any of their beers free of charge while in Singapore, with their compliments. "But it was too late." Burgess wrote, "I had become wholly a gin man."
[edit] Trivia
In the 1960s, Tiger produced a beer coaster featuring a character called "Miss "Wiggle" De Chassis, curvacious Singapore model" who was quoted on the coaster as saying "I often feel like a wet rag after a show, but I rely on TIGER to give me that stimulating uplift." The existence or otherwise of "Miss 'Wiggle' De Chassis" is unconfirmed.
[edit] See also
Category:Beer and breweries in Asia
