Asahi’s Cyber Woes See Rivals Tap Further into Japan Beer Market

Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.’s local rivals are capitalizing on its prolonged system outage to gain market share in Japan, as the brewer struggles to recover from a cyberattack that paralyzed its production and distribution.

Asahi’s Japan beer sales were down a little less than 10% from a year earlier in October, while competitor Kirin Holdings Co.’s jumped as much as 19%, according to monthly data released by the companies Thursday. Sapporo Holdings Ltd.’s sales volume was up 13%, and Suntory Holdings Ltd. remained flat.

The figures offer the first sign that Asahi could lose ground to its peers in its largest market as it continues to recover from the late September cyberattack. Japan generated 46% of Asahi’s revenue last year.

The ransomware hit shut down key internal systems managing all of Asahi’s orders and shipments. The company has since been forced process transactions manually, and has yet to provide a timeline for full restoration. Asahi resumed shipments of core products, including its flagship Super Dry beer, on Oct. 2.

“The beer products currently available for shipment — including Super Dry — account for about 80% of normal sales, so the impact has been minor,” an Asahi spokesperson told Bloomberg.

Still, the disruption comes at a critical time for the brewer, as December is typically its strongest month in Japan — and when Super Dry generates 12% of its own annual sales alone.

Asahi has lost its No. 1 spot in Japan’s retail beer market to rival Kirin — which surged ahead after Oct. 6, led by strong sales of its Ichiban Shibori brand — according to point-of-sales data reported earlier by the Nikkei newspaper.