We reported in June last year that Beer Importers & Distributors (BID) would be bringing in beers from Abita Springs, Louisiana-based Abita Brewing Company into Singapore, but the New South Wales, Australia-based beer import and distribution company has confirmed that they will no longer be doing so after being in the market for a year.
BID originally moved to bring in Abita to replace Samuel Adams of Boston Beer Company in its portfolio when it lost its distribution rights for that American craft beer brand to Coca-Cola Amatil in the Australian market in end 2013. Singapore gets its supply from Australia’s allocation. But it seems that Abita hasn’t done too well for BID, and has stopped bringing in further shipments of Abita since a couple of months back.
Also dropped from BID’s portfolio is its range of Jame Squire beers made by Lion Nathan-owned New South Wales, Australia-based Malt Shovel Brewery.
“Due to difficulty of market penetration, we are afraid that as of this moment, we are unable to bring in these two brands,” a company executive revealed.
Update: BID co-founder Franck Berges has confirmed that despite its slow start new stocks of Abita are on their way to Singapore. In Australia, Abita has been very well received and has now been the official beer of the US Embassy and the Independence Day celebrations throughout Australia for the past 2 years.
We’ve also received clarification from BID that BID Singapore operates independently from BID Australia and imports all its beers directly from its principals i.e. both entities get separate allocations. We apologise for the error.
