Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in the world and among the most highly consumed beverages overall.
However, even industries as massive as the beer industry are vulnerable to changing market trends. If companies don’t change and adapt to the demands of consumers, even industry giants may lose their positions at the top to up-and-comers.
In this article, we’ll cover the ten largest beer companies in the world and examine some of the reasons for their success.
They’ll give us a glimpse at what consumers currently want and the directions in which the industry is headed.
Anheuser-Busch Inbev. Headquarters: Leuven, Belgium
2022 Annual Revenue: $57.786 billion
Anheuser-Busch Inbev owns 500 different beer brands and uses its massive network of over 600 company-owned distributors and wholesalers to sell its products worldwide.
The company is most well-known for its flagship brands of Budweiser and Bud Light.
Although sales of these two drinks have dropped over the last few years, Anheuser-Busch Inbev has boosted its company value overall with its acquisition of SABMiller and the rising sales of Stella Artois and Corona.
Anheuser-Busch provides a positive outlook for the beer market as a whole, as their continued growth counters the stress and fear that the beer industry will shed much of its market share to alternatives such as wine, spirits, and marijuana.
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Heineken. Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands
2022 Annual Revenue: $38.022 billion
Heineken is the second-largest beer company in the world and the largest in Europe. It has consistently held its position near the top for almost the entirety of its 150-year-old history.
The company operates over 160 breweries in over 70 countries and sells more than 8.5 million barrels of beer in the United States alone.
In addition to their flagship brand of the same name, Heineken also owns the rights to popular international beer brands such as Desperados, Affligem, and Tecate.
The company also sells many popular regional and local ciders and specialty beers.
One of the underrated but most important factors to Heineken’s continued success and future outlook has been its tech infrastructure.
The company has invested billions of euros in developing technologies leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to ramp up its production and increase its efficiency.
Heineken also invests much more money than the competing beer giants in using AI augmentation in other aspects of their business, such as customer experience and advertising.
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Asahi. Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
2022 Annual Revenue: $21.906 billion
Established in the city of Osaka in 1889, Asahi is currently the largest brewery in Japan in terms of sales volume and has maintained that position for the last 12 years.
Although the company has long been a leading Japanese brewery, their more recent success has mainly been due to the launch of their “Asahi Super Dry,” Japan’s first dry draft beer.
In addition to a diverse variety of alcoholic beverages other than beer, Asahi also sells other products such as pharmaceuticals and food.
Japanese demand for beer has waned in recent years and is expected to continue doing so in the foreseeable future.
To adapt, Asahi has been expanding its presence overseas into regions such as Europe and the United States. Their products are mostly popular along the west and east coast thus far, and much less so in most other states.
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Kirin Brewery Co.. Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
2022 Annual Revenue: $15.319 billion
Kirin is the second-largest brewery in Japan and among the largest in the world.
Compared to the other Japanese beer giant Asahi, a considerably larger portion of Kirin’s sales comes from overseas markets.
The company either owns or holds a large stake in overseas companies such as:
Myanmar Brewery Limited
Asia Pacific Breweries
Kirin Brewery of America
Kirin Europe
San Miguel Brewery
In Japan, Kirin’s flagship products are Kirin Lager and Ichiban Shibori, as well as the popular low-malt beer Kirin Tanrei.
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Molson Coors Brewing Company. Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
2022 Annual Revenue: $10.701 billion
Established in 2003, Molson Coors Brewing is the second-largest beer company in the United States.
The company is also highly competitive in both Canada and Europe through its two segments of Molson Coors Canada and Molson Coors Europe.
Molson Coors Brewing operates 31 breweries and owns over 90 strategic and partner brands that sell their products in over 50 countries worldwide.
Although long-term competitors, Molson Coors and UK-based SABMiller merged operations in the United States and Puerto Rico through their joint venture of MillerCoors.
The company continues to expand its operations and sales by growing its brand portfolio, developing value-added innovation, and investing in the craft, cider, and premium markets.
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Carlsberg. Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark
2022 Annual Revenue: $9.95 billion
Carlsberg was founded in 1847 by J.C. Jacobsen has since grown into a brewery giant operating over 140 different beer brands worldwide.
In addition to beer, Carlsberg also sells beverages such as sodas and juices.
The company has seen modest yet steady growth in sales since the 1990s.
This growth may be less dramatic than that of China Resources Snow Barrels, but is just as impressive of a feat given how competitive the European and American beer markets are.
To compete with the likes of Anheuser Busch InBev and Heineken, Carlsberg introduced a new strategy in 2016 titled SAIL’22.
The plan details how the company will focus more on its core beer business over the next decade and target different distinct areas for progress.
Groupe Castel. Headquarters: Bordeaux, France
2022 Annual Revenue: $6.8 billion
Castel Group was founded in 1949 and has enjoyed considerable worldwide sales since it first expanded overseas in the 1960s.
The company markets itself as the premiere French beer and has an established presence and relevant consumer base in over 130 countries.
Castel Group’s flagship beer brands are Flag and Castel.
Most of the company’s beer products are produced in Africa. This has been the case since they first expanded into the country in 1990 with the acquisition of Brasseries et Glacieres Internationales.
China Resources Snow Barrels. Headquarters: Beijing, China
2022 Annual Revenue: $5.236 billion
China Resources Snow Barrels is only 27 years old, but is already the third-largest beer company in the world and the single largest in China, controlling 21% of the country’s market share.
The company manages 98 high-quality breweries across 25 Chinese provinces to produce more than 20 million kiloliters of beer every year.
Although most of China Resources Snow Barrels beer brands aren’t well known outside of the country, the sheer size of China’s addressable market is so large that the company’s flagship brand “Snow” is one of the best selling beers in the world.
China Resources Snow Barrels was originally a joint venture between SABMiller and China Resources Enterprise.
However, the brewery outgrew SABMiller so much that it was able to buy the remaining stake of the company after it was acquired by Anheuser Busch InBev.
Tsingtao Brewery Group. Headquarters: Qingdao, China
2022 Annual Revenue: $4.77 billion
Tsingtao Brewery Group is the largest beer company in China after China Resources Snow Barrels.
The company has a long history dating back 115 years and over its lifetime has expanded to sell its portfolio of beer, spirits, and ciders brands in over 100 countries worldwide.
Although smaller than China Resources Snow Barrels, Tsingtao enjoys much greater popularity outside of its home country, achieving over 90% brand recognition in developed regions such as North America, Canada, and Europe.
One major reason for the company’s success is the high-end image it has created for itself. This not only appeals to the growing middle and upper class in China but customers around the world who want to taste the best beer that the country has to offer.
Tsingtao Brewery Group also focuses heavily on developing its products to meet changing consumer trends. They constantly test and release new flavors and varieties to capture a greater fan base.
Representatives from the company have described their strategy as being focused on the three tenets of “high-quality, high-visibility, and high-price.”
Beijing Yanjing Beer Group. Headquarters: Beijing, China
2022 Annual Revenue: $1.92 billion
Beijing Yanjing Beer Group is currently the fourth-largest beer company in China.
They initially started as Yanjing Brewery, before consolidating into a number of different, smaller companies categorized by their province of operations.
Yanjing currently sells the vast majority of its beer in North and South China. In addition to beer, the company also produces products such as yeast, plastic boxes, and distilled wine.
A large portion of their business comes from their mineral water brands of Huiguan, Yanjing, and Xuelu.
Who is the largest beer company in the world?
The largest beer company in the world is Anheuser-Busch Inbev. With a 2022 revenue of $57.786 billion, Anheuser-Busch Inbev is the largest beer company in the world. The second largest beer company in the world is Heineken, which had a revenue of $38 billion in 2022.
How many beer companies are there in the world?
There are over 19,000 beer companies in the world. It is estimated that the majority of these companies are small microbreweries that are highly localized to their geographic location.
What is the world’s oldest beer company?
Weihenstephan is the oldest beer company in the world. Located in Freising, Germany, Weihenstephan claims to have been founded in 1040. However, it should be noted, that the earliest evidence of this brewery’s existence dates it to 1675, which is still a significant age.
