Draft beer prices in Beijing: Guinness vs Stella vs Tsingtao
Highest price, lowest markup
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Which is more profitable for a pub: A pint of Guinness, Stella, or Tsingtao? Here are some sample beer costs for a bar and the prices it might charge. I base the beer costs on talks with several bar managers over the past few months.
|
Pint of… |
Price: RMB |
Cost: RMB |
Profit: RMB |
Profit: % |
|
Tsingtao |
15 |
3 |
12 |
400 |
|
Stella |
35 |
15 |
20 |
133 |
|
Guinness |
55 |
30 |
25 |
83 |
Many readers might be surprised to find that despite the price gap between Guinness and Stella, the net profit for the former is only RMB5 more. Meanwhile, Tsingtao easily is the cheapest and has the highest markup.
Putting taste aside for the moment, if you are worried about your budget, then stick to Tsingtao. But if you prefer Stella and Guinness, the number shows that while these beers cost more, bars aren’t charging outrageous amounts given how much it costs them for these beers.
I would add my observation that people are generally more willing to open their wallets for an extra Tsingtao or Stella than they are for a Guinness. So, if Customer A drinks two Guinness and Customer B drinks three Stella, B gets drunker and spends slightly less (RMB105 versus RMB110) while the bar makes slightly more (RMB60 versus RMB50). And if Customer C drains five Tsingtao because it is cheap, he or she spends less (RMB75) while the bar makes about the same profit (RMB60). Obviously, these numbers vary with the prices charged at particular bars.
Finally, if you are looking for good beer deals, then places like The Den (RMB30 Guinness during happy hour, 5-10 PM, daily), Union Bar & Grille (two pints of Guinness for RMB50, 4-8 PM, daily), Tun (two pints of Stella for RMB35 on Thursday nights) and Tim’s Texas BBQ (RMB10 draft) are among the better options.
I’ll try and put together some numbers on wine and cocktails next.
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this is great info, thanks!!
i can confirm in shenzhen similar prices are the same, though i have not checked with the cost side with the managers…..bar costs in shenzhen must be similar to those in beijing.
but when im at a bar, if i want to get drunk i stick to the cheap stuff…
on the otherhand, if i’m having a good meal with friends, i will step it up and get the guiness….
its also the import taxes china charges that forces the imports to be so much higher…..and the bar has to offer them, and therefore cannot mark them up too high to price them out of the market.
interesting…
Another way of reading your table: 15 kuai for a pint of Tsingtao is still 10 kuai too much.
Jim,
What may be also useful to know is where the beers were made. Outside of China, or within? Many of our favourite international brands are now being made ‘under license’ in China (avoiding import duties?), at least cutting costs substantially on production and shipping. Looking at your figures above, it would be interesting to know if the draft wife beater was imported, and if so, where (Asia or Europe)
garry -
to the best of my knowledge, the draught guinness which gets imported to china is brewed in ireland and the stella is brewed in belgium. this despite stella for both the UK and australia being brewed domestically in each of those markets, and the 5% ABV “foreign extra” version of guinness being brewed in malaysia (the original guinness “foreign extra”, brewed only for the latin american, carribean and african markets, should be 7.5%)
As far as I know a keg of Guinness goes for 1,200RMB, and let’s assume that one 30 liter keg holds 55 pints, that gives us 21.8RMB/pint which gives us 114% profit which is much closer to Stella than the above states.