Kirin Beer

Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd. is a Japanese company. It is a member of the Mitsubishi keiretsu.

Kirin sells two of the most popular beers in Japan, Kirin Lager--the country's oldest beer brand--and Ichiban Shibori. In the happoshu (low-malt) category, Kirin Tanrei is the top seller. Kirin handles domestic distribution for several foreign brands, including Budweiser and Heineken. Kirin's brewery operations also extend overseas, through strategic alliances, subsidiaries, and affiliates, to China, Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines, Europe, New Zealand and the United States. The company holds a 100% stake in Lion Nathan Limited, a consolidated subsidiary that is based in Australia but has particularly important operations in China. Kirin has a 48% stake in San Miguel Brewery, the dominant brewer in the Philippines. Kirin now applies its fermentation technology to areas such as plant genetics, pharmaceuticals, and bioengineering. Although brewing and related businesses remain the core of Kirin's activities, the company is also involved in several other sectors: hard liquor, wine, soft drinks, and food products.
In Japanese, "kirin" can refer to giraffes, or to Qilin, mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creatures. Kirin Brewery is named after the latter.
On July 14, 2009, Kirin announced that it was in negotiations with Suntory on a merger. On February 8, 2010, it was announced that negotiations between the two were terminated.
On October 2011, the court has decided that Kirin can buy a majority stake in family-run Brazilian brewer Schincariol. Kirin will buy 50.45 percent of the stakes with value $2.6 billion.
In 2010, Kirin made 23.4 percent of sales abroad, the highest abroad revenue among Japanese brewery.