Asia Pacific Breweries
Encyclopedia
Asia Pacific Breweries is an Asian brewery company founded as Malayan Breweries Limited (MBL) in 1931, in a joint venture between Heineken International and Fraser and Neave
, and given its present name in 1990. It currently controls 30 breweries in 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region, selling over 120 brands of beer and beer variants. Heineken is the largest shareholder with a 42.5% stake. The company is listed on the Singapore Exchange
.
under a license from its parent company.
Launched in 1932, Tiger Beer became Singapore's first locally brewed beer. It is a 5% abv
bottled pale lager
. As APB's exclusive flagship brand, it is available in more than 60 countries worldwide including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and various countries in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.
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 free gift to him. But fourteen years later, when Burgess was more famous, it relented. In 1970, the company offered Burgess a privilege of which he could consume any of their beers free of charge while in Singapore. However, in his own words Burgess wrote in response: “But it was too late, I had become wholly a gin
man.”
The beer can was also seen being poured in the 2002 movie The Transporter
with Jason Statham
.
Crates of Tiger Beer appeared in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder
. Also, in the 2001 Hong Kong action thriller The Accidental Spy
it's the preferred beer of Buck Yuen (played by Jackie Chan
) who orders it by name in a bar and, also has an empty bottle of Tiger Beer by his bed clearly displayed in the foreground of the next scene as he wakes up from a dream.
Fraser and Neave
Fraser & Neave Limited is a food and beverage, brewing, property and publishing & printing industries conglomerate in Singapore.Listed in Singapore, the group’s subsidiaries and associated companies include Frasers Centrepoint, Asia Pacific Breweries and Times Publishing...
, and given its present name in 1990. It currently controls 30 breweries in 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region, selling over 120 brands of beer and beer variants. Heineken is the largest shareholder with a 42.5% stake. The company is listed on the Singapore Exchange
Singapore Exchange
Singapore Exchange Limited is an investment holding company located in Singapore and providing different services related to securities and derivatives trading and others. SGX is a member of the World Federation of Exchanges and the Asian and Oceanian Stock Exchanges FederationSingapore Exchange...
.
Key brands
The company’s main brands are: Tiger Beer, Anchor, Baron’s Strong Brew, ABC Extra Stout and Archipelago Brewery Company range of beers. It also brews HeinekenHeineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
under a license from its parent company.
Tiger Beer
Alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
bottled pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
. As APB's exclusive flagship brand, it is available in more than 60 countries worldwide including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and various countries in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.
Distribution
- APB has breweries in SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Malaysia, ThailandThailandThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, CambodiaCambodiaCambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Papua New GuineaPapua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, LaosLaosLaos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and MongoliaMongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
. The company has a strong market shareMarket shareMarket share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...
in several countries within the Asia Pacific RegionAsia-PacificAsia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...
, primarily in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. - In Malaysia, Tiger Beer is produced and marketed by Guinness Anchor BerhadGuinness Anchor BerhadGuinness Anchor Berhad is a major producer of beer and stout in Malaysia and has been listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia since 1965...
(GAB). - In the USA, Tiger Beer’s brand is well known in New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and San Francisco. - In the UK, Tiger Beer can be found in more than 8,000 premium bars/clubs and distribution outlets in its major cities.
- Tiger Beer gained considerable popularity in Detroit in October 2006 due to the Detroit TigersDetroit TigersThe Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
BaseballBaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
Team's entrance into the 2006 World Series2006 World SeriesThe 2006 World Series, the 102nd edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, began on October 21 and ended on October 27, and matched the American League champion Detroit Tigers against the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals won the Series in five games, taking...
.
Tiger in Popular Culture
The “It's Time for a Tiger” slogan for Tiger Beer has run for decades since its inception in the 1930s.The writer Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
named his first novel Time for a Tiger
Time for a Tiger
Time for a Tiger is part one of Anthony Burgess's Malayan Trilogy The Long Day Wanes, "the first panel of a triptych" set in the twilight of British rule of the peninsula....
(the first part of the Malayan trilogy The Long Day Wanes
The Long Day Wanes
The Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy, also published as The Malayan Trilogy, is Anthony Burgess's novel cycle about the withdrawal from empire....
) 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
Time for a Tiger
Time for a Tiger is part one of Anthony Burgess's Malayan Trilogy The Long Day Wanes, "the first panel of a triptych" set in the twilight of British rule of the peninsula....
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 free gift to him. But fourteen years later, when Burgess was more famous, it relented. In 1970, the company offered Burgess a privilege of which he could consume any of their beers free of charge while in Singapore. However, in his own words Burgess wrote in response: “But it was too late, I had become wholly a gin
Gin
Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
man.”
The beer can was also seen being poured in the 2002 movie The Transporter
The Transporter
The Transporter is a 2002 French action film directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen and written by Luc Besson, who was inspired by BMW Films' The Hire series....
with Jason Statham
Jason Statham
Jason Statham born 12 September1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...
.
Crates of Tiger Beer appeared in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 American action satire comedy film written, produced, and directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., and Jack Black. The main plot revolves around a group of prima donna actors who are making a Vietnam War film...
. Also, in the 2001 Hong Kong action thriller The Accidental Spy
The Accidental Spy
The Accidental Spy is a 2001 Hong Kong martial arts action film, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Teddy Chan. Filming took place in Istanbul....
it's the preferred beer of Buck Yuen (played by Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...
) who orders it by name in a bar and, also has an empty bottle of Tiger Beer by his bed clearly displayed in the foreground of the next scene as he wakes up from a dream.
See also
Beer and breweries in Asia- :Get Your Sexy Back - A moderate drinking campaign in Singapore