From the importer's view

When sales of U.S.-brewed craft beer slowed dramatically in 1997, fans of specialty beers took solace in the fact that imports continued to thrive. Brands with established names and big advertising budgets enjoyed double-digit growth, and a seemingly endless number of new labels showed up on the shelves.

"There will be a shakeout like the micros had. The marginal Belgian beers and marginal British beers will have a tough time. The market will continue to grow, but with fewer brands."

However, many of those new brands are still enjoying the honeymoon, which - microbrewers can assure them - won't last forever.

For some perspective on the specialty beer market, we turned to Michael Tassin. Tassin heads Texas-based Belukus Marketing, importer of such brands as Duvel, Chimay, Young's, Belhaven and De Koninck. He was one of the founders of Manneken-Brussel Imports, which brought Duvel to the United States in 1978, the same year Charles Finkel started Merchant du Vin in Seattle.

Tassin grew up in Belgium, went to college in England and returned to Belgium to work at a variety of jobs before moving to Austin, Texas, 20 years ago. As a youth, he lived in a village near Hoegaarden, where Pierre Celis made the highly praised Hoegaarden "White." When Celis is asked why he decided to start the Celis Brewery in Austin, he always mentions the water, and he often notes he got to know the area when visiting a friend who lived there. That was Tassin.

Tassin recently moved to the Hill Country west of Austin, but he hasn't had as much time as he would like to enjoy his new home. Two weeks before he took time to talk with us, he was in San Francisco, the next week in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va. After a week in Texas, he was off to Los Angeles. It's fair to say he's in close touch with the market.

Beer Travelers: In a recent interview in Modern Brewery Age, Gary Matthews of the Guinness Import Co. said that the microbrewery boom was "all trial." That is, repeat business was declining, although trial business was growing, and when the number of new customers trying micros diminished, sales hit a wall. Do you agree?
Michael Tassin: I think that's true. Brewing beer a couple of years ago was a very romantic thing to do. Now all of us, whether you are making beer or selling it, we need volume to survive.

BT: But you remain a fan of micros, right?
MT: No doubt in my mind, they helped us out. I've always supported the micros, but I won't support them unless they make good beer. I wouldn't support a Belgian brewer who made bad beer. I love Sierra Nevada, I love everything Anchor does, mostly West Coast beers. But when I'm in Houston I'll have St. Arnold's and I really enjoyed Oliver's in Baltimore.

BT: You grew up with beer.
MT: My grandfather had a brewery - that disappeared with the war. My dad was a beer distributor, and I worked in a bottle plant when I was 8-9 years old.

BT: So when did you first taste beers such as Duvel and Chimay?
MT: Not until I was in my early 20s. The first one was Duvel. Chimay and Westmalle, those are really regional beers. Most Americans don't realize it, but 75 percent of the beers drunk in Belgium are lagers.

BT: There's certainly an aura surrounding Belgian beers, with a lot of American micros and brewpubs serving up Belgian-style ales and plenty of imports we've never seen before.
MT: That means there's a lot of bad beer out there. Belgium isn't different than any other country, there are good brewers and bad brewers. I'm worried that there is a lot of mediocre Belgian beer right now. If that's the first Belgian beer a customer tries and he doesn't like it … people categorize easily.

BT: Obviously, Belgium wants to protect its U.S. market. The Confederation des Brasseries de Belgique has indicated it will fight the use of the term "Belgian (the Belgian Designation)" to promote beer not actually brewed in Belgium (most often in North America). How important is the United States to Belgian brewers?
MT: Actually, Belgium sold more beer to Japan last year. The Belgian packages lend themselves to the Japanese market. They fit in with things like the high-end ports. A Belgian lager brewer made a large shipment, so those figures may have been a little off. We'll see this year. The U.S. just passed Italy to become the second-largest market for Chimay (France is No.1). Holland is No.1 for Duvel, France No.2 and then come England and the United States. When you talk Duvel and Chimay, that's 50 percent of the Belgian business in the United States.

BT: How have those brands done recently?
MT: Duvel was down two years ago, but it's back up. It already looks like this is going to be a banner year for Chimay and Duvel.

BT: While those beers are well known by connoisseurs, you don't exactly have the advertising budget to introduce them to those still trying new beer.
MT: I still think the quality beers will emerge. There will be a shakeout like the micros had. The marginal Belgian beers and marginal British beers will have a tough time. The market will continue to grow, but with fewer brands.

BT: Aren't micros still introducing drinkers to styles they haven't tried before?
MT: Certainly. They've copied from the British and the Belgians, but I think the experimentation stage is over now. People are going to gravitate to the originals.

BT: You said you need volume to survive. How much of that can you build through putting beer on sale?
MT: It's become a price-point motivated business. We ask the breweries how much beer they want to sell, then we have to come up with the pricing points. When we promote Young's Oatmeal Stout and Ramrod at $1.99 for a pint bottle, we sell a heck of a lot more beer. But discounting, that's not something us microbrewers are good at. The big guys are masters of playing that game. You won't beat them that way.

BT: Some of the breweries you represent have adapted for the U.S. market.
MT: There are things they do over here and then go back to do there. Young's Oatmeal Stout was pioneered here, then sold in England. They sell more Old Nick here than in England. James (Young) has said that if it weren't for the U.S. market they might not even make the beer.

BT: Young's certainly seems intent on broadening its U.S. market. Let's see, new stuff includes Old Nick on draft, the Double Chocolate Stout, Dirty Dick's and bottle-conditioned Special London. Did we leave anything out?
MT: All new labels. There's no way but up for Young's. It's what people already know. Young's and Fuller's have such a huge advantage being the only breweries in London. Everybody who goes to Europe goes to London, and it's hard to go there without ending up in a Young's or Fuller's pub.

BT: One last question. Many micros count on draft sales for half their business, some for all of their business. How vital are draft sales for you?
MT: We need to have 10-15 solid draft accounts in every city we're in, but draft is very labor intensive, and if you are not big enough to provide a lot of support you shouldn't try to be in every bar. Draft is very important, it's a cheap way to promote our beer. People are willing to spend $4.50 for a draft rather than $6 for a six-pack. But bars are where they try it, the store is where they buy it. In California, 90 percent of our sales are off-premise, overall about 75-80 percent of our sales are off-premise.

This interview was conducted in March of 1998.