Tsingtao Chinese beer for on-trade

Halewood International (HI), importers of Tsingtao Chinese beer, plans to bring the beer to the on trade to coincide with the Chinese New Year on 26 January 2009.

To date, the company's success has been in the Chinese restaurant sector, but HI wants to make Tsingtao the UK's leading premium beer brand in the next five years.

Building on "post-Olympic" Chinese popularity, and teaming up with Monkey - Journey to the West, the opera based on a 16th-century Chinese fable and currently at the O2 in London, are just some of the ways HI hopes to "introduce the brand beyond the Chinese restaurant experience", said marketing controller Richard Clark.

HI will sponsor the Chinese New Year celebrations in London, Newcastle, Birmingham and Liverpool.

Clark added: "In 2009 we are looking to leverage our activity around Chinese New Year celebrations to take the brand beyond the British Chinese community."

HI is currently in talks with on-trade stockists, and hopes to make the beer available to pubs and bars very soon.