[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] OB Beer's Cass, which has boasted the number one spot in the domestic beer market share for 13 consecutive years and is called the 'nation's beer', is suffering humiliation on the world stage with embarrassing evaluations and report cards, such as receiving a failing grade from the 'Beer Michelin'.

There are growing voices of criticism that rather than pursuing profits through successive price increases, efforts should be made to improve the quality of products for customers.

The 'national beer' with a 40% domestic market share was compared to domestic competitors Hite Jinro's Terra and Kelly, as well as Tsingtao, Asahi, and even North Korea's Taedonggang beer, and suffered the humiliation of falling behind. This year, it still ranked low in international evaluations.

Even in this situation, the company raised prices three times in three years, perhaps because it thought of domestic consumers as fools, while putting quality improvement on the back burner. Furthermore, the fact that it raised prices while the corporate performance indicators were extremely good, taking advantage of weakened government oversight, is being criticized as not only “excessive profit seeking,” but also an attempt to collect dividends for the AB InBev headquarters in the United States.

OB Beer's 'Cass', the undisputed No. 1 in the Korean beer market, is solidifying its No. 1 position with an overwhelming market share in the domestic home beer market in the first half of 2024. In particular, Cass Fresh ranked first among beer brands with a 44% market share (No. 1 in the domestic beer market for 13 years), up 1.7 percentage points (p) year-on-year, and widened the market share gap with the second-place brand to more than 3.5 times.

However, in the reviews of the world-renowned beer review sites BeerAdvocate and Untappd, OB Beer Cass Fresh received 61 points out of 100 on BeerAdvocate. A score in the 60s indicates a mediocre level of quality, to the point where it is classified as a “beer that is difficult to recommend.”

Dutch beer Heineken received 65 points, Japan's Asahi Super Dry received 66 points, and even China's Tsingtao beer, which caused a stir with its urine beer, received 66 points. It even fell behind Tsingtao beer, which is being shunned by Korean consumers due to the urine incident.

Hite Jinro's representative beers Terra and Kelly, which compete with OB Beer in the domestic market, received 74 and 78 points, respectively. The 70-point range means an ordinary beer level, meaning 'a beer worth enjoying.' Lotte Chilsung Beverage's Cloud also received a higher score than Cass Fresh with 74 points. Even Taedonggang Beer, made by North Korea, received 75 points.

Among the major beers, the brand with the lowest score was Budweiser (57 points), an American beer owned by AB InBev, like OB Beer. A score in the 50s indicates a 'bad beer'.

According to the audit report of the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, OB Beer's consolidated sales in 2024 increased by 12.6% year-on-year (KRW 1.5458 trillion) to KRW 1.7404 trillion, operating profit increased by 56% year-on-year to KRW 367.6 billion, and net profit for the period also increased by 57% year-on-year to KRW 241.1 billion. The operating profit ratio is also very good, exceeding 20%.

However, of the huge profits earned in Korea, OB Beer paid out 332.8 billion won in dividends to its parent company AB InBev, a 75.2% (142.8 billion won) increase from the previous year. In addition, as can be seen from the dividend payout ratio of 138%, 332.8 billion won was paid out as dividends, which is much more than the net profit of 241.1 billion won.

An official from the Korea Beer Sommelier Association said, “OB Beer has been pursuing a large-scale marketing strategy in Korea with a massive amount of product,” and “While domestic competitors have consistently invested money and effort into quality improvement, the beer with the largest market share in the country has shown that it has been passive about quality improvement for a long time.”

OB Beer spent 153.9 billion won on advertising last year. It also paid 4.6 billion won (Anheuser-Busch Worldwide Investments 3.3 billion won, SPRL InBev Belgium BVBA 1.3 billion won) in technology royalties.

In addition, sales expenses, management expenses, and logistics expenses increased by 15% year-on-year to KRW 697.1 billion. Salary expenses were KRW 130.4 billion, and commissions were KRW 84.6 billion. In addition, there was a loan of KRW 2.4 billion to a subsidiary, Jet X Ventures, through a special related party financial transaction.

There is also one legal action in progress, and the customs portal evasion case is under investigation by the Seoul Customs and the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office's Tax Crime Investigation Division.