Swedes Celebrate Arrival of Steinlager

MEDIA RELEASE 13 DECEMBER 2012

Swedes Celebrate Arrival of Steinlager

Over the years the Swedes have given us Volvo, Bjorn Borg, Saab and of course, IKEA, and finally New Zealand is ready to give something back. New Zealand’s most successful beer export, Steinlager has just launched in Sweden following a distribution deal that will see its Pure beer brand sold in 382 retail stores, bars and restaurants around the country.

All Blacks Tony Woodcock, Adam Thomson and Brodie Retallick travelled to Sweden after their Northern Hemisphere tour to officially launch Steinlager to the Swedish market. The players took on the Swedes at some of their own games including competing in a table tennis match against former world champion Mikael Appelgren, playing indoor hockey against the Swedish national team and "strengthtesting" against Magnus Samuelsson, winner of the World's Strongest Man title in 1998.

Rory Glass, Managing Director at Lion comments, “Breaking into the Swedish market has been tough due to alcohol sales being so heavily regulated, but I’m happy to say we got there in the end. About 20 per cent of our output for Steinlager is consumed overseas. We expect Sweden to become one of the biggest export markets for Steinlager.”

Including Sweden, Steinlager is now sold in 20 countries making it New Zealand’s biggest export beer. Hawaii is Steinlager's largest export market, followed by the rest of the Pacific and the mainland United States. In Europe it is also sold in Britain, Ireland and France. www.steinlager.co.nz

ENDS

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