Interview with Jock Auld – Business Development Manager of Amber Rebellion
Amber Rebellion is a beer importer based in Hong Kong, specialising in craft beers from South Australia.
The business was founded eighteen months ago by Andrew Carrick, Jon Boag and Dan Boland. All three partners were from Adelaide South Australia and shared a common passion for quality brewed beer.
Originally the idea for the business came about when Andrew and Dan were out on a pub-crawl looking for a few decent Aussie beers to drink.
After unsuccessfully finding Coopers, which is south Australia’s most famous beer, at any venues in Hong Kong, they guys decided to contact Glen Cooper, the Chairman of Coopers directly.
By some stroke of luck Glen picked up the phone where the initial discussion took place. Andrew later caught with Glen again during a cricket match at the Adelaide oval. Several beers later and Glen had agreed to let Andrew and the team import some beers under the Coopers brand into Hong Kong, along with the existing distributor.
The team hit the ground running, making calls and knocking on doors to quickly built up the business. After the early success they started to look for south Australian craft beers to add to their distribution selection.
- The selection includes Pikes, another traditional south Australian brewing brand, in market since the eighteen hundreds.
- Prancing Pony, from the Alidade hills and of German decent using fire brewing techniques.
- Barossa Valley Brewing Company, started by an ex Hong Konger and merchant banker who relocated to the Barossa Valley to launch his own brewery.
- Clare Valley Brewing, launched by a couple of home brewing fans who used to compete against each other decided to join forces to launch their own company.
- Pirate Life, a new beer less than eighteen-month old beer that is big news in the South Australian market.
AR doesn’t do retail, but serve as a wholesale distributor to on and off premise venues in Hong Kong. “The decision behind that was, that if someone tries one of our beers in a bar and they really like it, we wanted them to value going into the bar to buy that beer” Jock explained. This in turn helps the venues know that they wont undercut them on price on sales.
Cooper’s beer is lot more mainstream than the craft brews they now import, which is popular in sports bars and other venues.
One of the big clients they picked up was the Hong Kong Dairy Farm Group, which imports the beer into for their retail shopping outlets like Wellcome, Market Place and Oliver’s.
Appeal of craft beer in Hong Kong
“It’s the development of taste” says Jock, who explained that beer was very bland for a very long time, brewing in the UK and Europe was more experimental early on than Australia or the US.
In the UK lots of pubs had their own brews and the old Ales had a lot more fuller flavour, but in Australia the higher selling brews were XXXX Gold which is a mid strength beer, and VB which is another light mid strength brew.
“People were just looking for something with more flavour and variety, Craft brews probably really opened up in Hong Kong over the last two years” said Jock.
Five years ago there was only one brewery in Hong Kong and now there are twelve, which shows there is a market demand from beer lovers and consumers in the territory.
How drinkers are moving from regular beer over to craft brews
Jock says it’s about education. AR has tried to stay away from the US type beers on their portfolio such as the East Coast American style IPA’s, which have a lot more hoppy bitter strong flavour.
AR has selected light and easy to drink brews like, Prancing Pony, Sunshine Ale, Pikes Pilsner, which still have a nice malty flavour to them. So the gap is not as big to jump by having a range that is easy to get into when moving over to drinking craft brews.
“There is time and place for different beers” says Jock “you can have your plain brews when your having a party and your craft experimental brews when your having a nice meal.”
Challenges are the completion in the market. Hong Kong is international and there are a lot of big players, craft brews also have a shorter shelf life which means they have to be stored and shifted in a shorter time.
As beer is competitive the team have also diversified, AR importers will bring in some non-alcoholic beverages along with some food produce and snacks.
Snacks are coming in from Pangkarra Foods, and include faba beans and chickpeas, mixed with sea salt rosemary and garlic. These are healthy alternatives to peanuts.
These products are brand new to the Hong Kong market and are stirring up a lot of interest in the local market.
New Distribution Channel and Partnership with Fuegy
The idea was hatched by Al Fullerton, Managing Director of Fuegy, Hong Kong’s premier marine fuel and bunkering service company.
“Jock and I shared an office in the early days. I was suppling quality diesel and AR quality beers to a client base that both demanded excellence. The synergies were there immediately. The concept came to me that Fuegy should be a ‘purveyor of fine liquids’, suppling craft beers and high end Aussie product to compliment a lovely day out on the water with family and friends”, says Al.
“It was a very cleaver idea that when you stock up on fuel you could stock up on beer and snacks. It works perfectly for us and opens up a whole new distribution channel” Jock said.
Jock had previously worked for Charter boats where he spent a lot of time stacking cartons of beers onto boats where he saw a need in the market.
Jock had previously worked for Charter boats where he spent a lot of time stacking cartons of beers onto boats where he saw a need in the market.
“Not everyone wants to drink a can of cheap beer and eat a packet of chips when they are out on a luxury boat trip in Hong Kong waters, bringing quality craft beer and premium snacks direct to boat will provide a much-needed service.” Jock explained.
So simply complete an order form and 24 hours later your craft beers, juices, mixers and snacks will be available for you or your Captain to pick up from the fuel barge while refuelling your vessel. For larger orders Fuegy can deliver direct to your Club or Vessel.
For enquiries please contact Amber Rebellion at: sales@amberrebellion.com
