SABMiller Launches Hansa Marzen Gold Beer in South Africa

17/04/07 SABMiller announces that its South African subsidiary, The South African Breweries Ltd, launched a new premium beer called Hansa Marzen Gold. The beer, which is an extension of the highly successful Hansa brand in South Africa,has been available this April.

Hansa Marzen Gold is the first locally developed but internationally based beer to be introduced to South Africa in many years.  Heavily influenced by the German brewing tradition, Hansa Marzen Gold is neither a pilsner nor a regular lager, but a ‘marzen-style’ German beer, with a special recipe using slow roasted amber malt as a key ingredient.  It is brewed for significantly longer than regular beer styles and together with its unique flavour, will set the product apart in the premium category.

Its look and feel is distinctly premium in a green bottle with copper foiling.  Amber malt prepared at high temperatures gives the brew a deep amber hue, a rich malty aroma and brewhouse flavour.  It is brewed using four different malt types and uses the classic Hallertau Pearlē hop from Hallert in Germany.  The product has an alcohol content of 5.2%.

Given that a significant slice of the South African market is in returnable bottles, Hansa Marzen Gold will be available in a 750ml (quart) returnable bottle, a 340ml non-returnable bottle and 340ml can.

The announcement of the new brand is well timed; as it is named after the German word for March, indicating the beginning of spring in Europe.  Brewers in 12th century Germany were the first to devise ways of allowing their beer to mature through the hot summer months by brewing in March and storing their beer in alpine caves until September.  Kegs would then be cracked at local town celebrations, and popular mythology holds that this was the origination of the now famous Oktoberfest.

Hansa Marzen Gold were available at leading outlets in Gauteng last first week of April and rolled out nationally over the following two weeks. As a premium product, it will be sold at a 20% premium to mainstream products such as Castle.

Commenting on the announcement, Tony Van Kralingen, Managing director of SAB, said:

“The Hansa brand is all about being different.  The original Hansa Pilsener – now one of the top three selling South African beers with Castle and Carling Black Label – effectively changed the rules by being the first pilsener to be introduced into South Africa in 1975. The launch of Hansa Marzen Gold carries on this tradition by presenting South Africans with a totally new beer type.

“Consumer testing far exceeded our expectations and ultimately, this new product is all about giving South African consumers more choice in the fast-growing premium segment.”

The company confirmed that it was also extending its popular Peroni Nastro Azzurro premium brand into draught, which will be available throughout South Africa.