E-Malt.com News article: Germany: Beverage company Wild targets the innovative beer mix drinks market

German beverage company Wild is targeting the growing market for mixed beer beverages in Germany with a range of ingredients and flavours. Breweries are increasingly targeting young adults with mixed beer beverages, who in terms of their purchasing behaviour, differ greatly from older generations.

"They are looking for products with new flavours, as an alternative to traditional drinks," said Wild.

"Innovative beer mix drinks in trendy colours and packaging meet consumer requirements for fun and pleasure."

Wild claims that citrus flavours are in great demand in innovative beer mix drinks, with the leading flavour being lime, which comes with a bright green colour. Red-coloured varieties with cherry or grenadine, and yellows with peach or yellow plum are also proving popular.

"Thanks to their high photostability, these trendy drinks are also suitable for transparent glass bottles, enabling their colours to be displayed for ideal marketability," said Wild.

This has become an increasingly important market in a country with one of the highest per capita consumption rates in Europe. Per capita consumption is almost 60 per cent higher than the western European average, and the German beer market remains the biggest in Europe and the third largest worldwide.

But there are challenges to be faced. The industry remains highly fragmented and consumption is declining as German consumers continue to move away from alcoholic drinks in favour of healthier options such as mineral water and juice.

In addition, the core beer drinking audience of 15-34 year olds is shrinking as the German population ages. These factors have both contributed towards total beer consumption receding in each of the last four years and by some 7 per cent since 1998.

“Despite this overall decline though, several segments are performing strongly most notably beer-based mixed drinks. Germany is the core market for beer-mixed drinks, having experienced growth of +33% (2005 vs. 2004),” the company said.

"The success of innovative beer mix drinks comes from various factors, but the most important and decisive factor for repeat purchases is taste," said Wild.

"Suitable marketing of the brand, and the packaging design are also influential factors. With these new concepts for coloured beer mix drinks, the product colour is also an important factor in the purchasing decision. Taking these factors into account during product development, beer mix drinks offer a great deal of promising growth potential in a stagnating market."

Wild claims that the combination of attractive colours, interesting tastes and mild beer is ideally suited at the young adult target group. In addition, the new beer mix drinks have a low alcohol content of approximately 2.5 per cent, and could prove to be a good alternative to highly taxed Alco pops.

With the vision of producing alcohol-free beverages using purely natural ingredients, Rudolf Wild founded the company in Heidelberg in 1931, thereby laying the foundation for his international success. Today, WILD is the largest private producer of natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry.


24 November, 2006