Tsingtao Brewery

Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd. is China's second largest brewery, with about 15% of domestic market share and accounts for half of China's national beer exports.[2][3][4] The headquarters are in Qingdao.

The brewery was founded in 1903 as an Anglo–German business with the brewery under the supervision of master brewers from Germany in Tsingtao (modern-day Qingdao), Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory, a 552 km² area leased by the government of China to Imperial Germany.

In 2016, Tsingtao beer was the second most consumed beer globally and had reached 2.8% share of the global beer market, after its share of the world's beer market had been steadily growing by at least 0.1 percentage points every year since 2009.[5] In 2020, Tsingtao topped the China's Most Valuable Beer Brands list by World Brand Lab with a brand value of 179.3 billion yuan.[6] Tsingtao is currently the sixth largest brewery in the world.

History

Tsingtao Brewery was founded by the Anglo-German Brewery Co. Ltd., an English-German joint stock company based in Hong Kong which owned it until 1916. The brewery sold beers to mainly Europeans in China.[8] The brewery was founded on August 15, 1903, as the Germania-Brauerei Tsingtao Co., Ltd (Germania Brewery) with a paid-in capital of 400,000 Mexican silver dollars divided into 4,000 shares priced at $100 each.[9]

The first beer was served on December 22, 1904.[9]

Following the Siege of Tsingtao during World War I, Qingdao came under Japanese and British military control. On August 16, 1916, an extraordinary general meeting was held in Shanghai. Liquidators were appointed and it was decided the company would be sold to the Dai-Nippon Brewery (大日本麦酒, which in 1949 would be split into Asahi Breweries and what later became Sapporo Brewery). The Japanese military administration in Qingdao approved the liquidation on September 9, 1916. German equity was approximately 70 percent. The German share of the sales price attributable to shareholders was in the hands of the liquidators by April 2, 1921.[9][10]

Founding members of the Supervisory Board[9]

John Prentice, of SC Farnham, Boyd & Co., Ltd., Shanghai

Alexander McLeod, of Gibb, Livingston & Co., Shanghai

C. W. Wrightson, of Fearon, Daniel & Co., Shanghai

Max Slevogt, of Slevogt & Co., Shanghai

J. Jürgen Block, of H. Sietas & Co., Qufu

Brewery Directors[9]

Heinrich Seifart (1904–November 25, 1907)

Ernst Siemssen (November 1907 – 1914)

Brewmasters[9]

R. Schuster (1904–05)

Martin Wehle (1906–14)

Nationalization

After Japan's surrender to the Allies and its retreat from China at the end of World War II, the Tsingtao Brewery was turned into a Chinese brewery under ownership of the Tsui family and the supervision of the Nationalist government in Nanjing. However, that period of ownership only lasted until 1949 when, after the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the new People's Republic of China confiscated all the shares in the Tsingtao Brewery, that had previously belonged to the Tsui family, and the business became a state-owned enterprise.

Privatization

The company was privatized in the early 1990s and in 1993 merged with three other breweries in Qingdao and was finally renamed Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited. In June 1993, Tsingtao Brewery became the first Chinese firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.[11]

At one point 27% of the company was owned by Anheuser-Busch. The company once owned several other breweries in China, some of which also produced Tsingtao Beer.

On January 23, 2009, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that it was selling 19.9% to

native name	青岛啤酒股份公司
native name lang	zh
type	Public
traded as	sse: 600600 sehk: 168
foundation	1903
location city	Qingdao, Shandong
location country	China
key people	Jiang Zong Xiang (Chairman & President)
revenue	CN¥32.14 billion (2024)
net income	CN¥5.84 billion (2024)
assets	CN¥51.42 billion (2024)
equity	CN¥29.86 billion (2024)
footnotes	‡R1R‡

History

Nationalization

Privatization

Beers

Export orientation

National marketing

International Beer Festival

Controversies

See also

External links

References