Marketing Communications

CASE 8 281

Case 8:

Maes: a challenger brand with more character

Maes: a Belgian lager beer with character

in decline

Jupiler (AB Inbev) is the market leader in the Belgian lager

market. MaesPils is the number 2 brand and is brewed and

marketed by the Alken-Maes Brewery. For many years, this

brewery was owned by the British group Scottish & Newcastle,

but in early 2008 was taken over by the Heineken Group.

Since 2002 the Belgian lager market has been in decline,

with an average decrease in volume sold of 2% per year.

This decline is mainly due to the on-trade channel (pubs

and restaurants), while the off-trade channel (supermarkets)

partly compensates for this trend (Figure 8.11).

At the same time Maes has lost 30% of volume sold in

six years, a much larger decline than the average market.

This is partly due to the fact that Maes has a greater share

in on-trade than in off-trade. On the other hand, Maes also

loses sales substantially in the off-trade channel. In the

remainder of this case study, only the off-trade channel is

considered. The decreasing volume sales in supermarkets

Figure 8.11 Evolution of lager volume per channel

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