Oriental Brewery holds largest share of Korea's retail beer market

Oriental Brewery's Cass beer comes in Olimited-edition World Cup-themed packaging [ORIENTAL BREWERY]

Oriental Brewery (OB) had the largest market share of the retail beer market in October, with the company offering limited edition products to entice consumers during the World Cup season.

In October, OB’s Cass beer had 42 percent of the local market for retail, or "off-trade," beer, according to research firm Nielsen Korea. The off-trade market refers to sales not made at restaurants or pubs and including sales from supermarkets, convenience stores and online sales.

As a company, OB had 58 percent of the market.

The company is working to maintain its market share during the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The beer maker released a limited-edition Cass beer product with World Cup-themed packaging. Known as the Number Cass Package, the numbers zero to nine are printed on the beer cans and bottles so consumers can combine them to make their favorite player's uniform number.

The company will also operate nine temporary pop-up pubs throughout Dec. 18 for people to gather and watch the World Cup and drink Cass beer.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]