Coors' new brew out to carb a niche
Golden company's Aspen Edge a late entry in diet market
By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News
March 4, 2004
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/dr...2701941,00.html
Coors Brewing Co. officially popped the cap on its low-carbohydrate beer.
The Golden brewer clearly is hoping the brew, Aspen Edge, will launch the company firmly - if belatedly - into the battle for low- carb beer drinkers.
Coloradans will have to wait a little while for Aspen Edge, however. Coors, the nation's No. 3 brewer, said its low-carb light lager is available in 11 states: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maryland, Virginia, Maine and Texas.
A nationwide marketing push is planned by summer's end.
Aspen Edge will be available in six- and 12-pack bottles at on- and off- premise outlets. Coors has said Aspen Edge would be priced higher than Coors Original and Coors Light.
The beer tips the scales at 2.6 grams of carbohydrates per 12- ounce bottle, the same as market leader Michelob Ultra. A Coors spokeswoman said Aspen Edge would be priced competitively with Anheuser-Busch's low-carb offering.
Michelob Ultra has quickly grown in popularity among carb-conscious consumers since its launch in September 2002. The beer has posed a stiff challenge to Coors' biggest selling brand in the U.S., Coors Light.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch - the world's No. 1 brewer as measured by volume - attributed its fourth-quarter profit gain of 9.3 percent in part to higher sales of Michelob Ultra. Some analysts have raised the possibility that Coors might be a takeover candidate.
Coors' late entry into the low-carb market might put the brewer at a disadvantage in winning over diet- conscious beer drinkers, some analysts said.
Michelob Ultra already has taken 2.7 percent of the beer-drinking market, about the same number of U.S. beer drinkers as Heineken has, said Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder-based Association of Brewers, a trade group representing home and professional brewers.
Miller Lite, which launched in the late 1970s as the first mainstream light beer, hasn't changed its formula but has been using new ad campaigns to tout its low (3.2-gram) carbohydrate count.
"There's a whole bunch of Americans who are on the Atkins diet or on a low-carb diet," Gatza said. He added that the rollout of low-carb beers "will benefit the large brewers" by creating an association between beer and a healthy life style.
Coors is wagering on that trend, and suggesting that taste will be a key factor in the low-carb beer market.
"In qualitative research, guys told us if there was a low-carb beer that also tasted great, they'd try it," said Ron Askew, Coors chief marketing officer.
Carbohydrate facts
• Coors Aspen Edge 2.6 grams
• Michelob Ultra 2.6 grams
• Miller Lite 3.2 grams
• Coors Light 5.0 grams
• Average for most beers 13.7 grams
• Coca-Cola Classic 39.0 grams
"Coors' new brew out to carb a niche"
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