SUMMARY:

The objective of this study is to examine the market and the technology of the beer sector in Turkey.
The potential of the beer market has been increased after the establishment of private companies in 1969. Until that time, TEKEL, as a public company, was the only owner of the beer market. By the investments of Efes Pilsen and Tuborg, introduce beer to consumers, the beer production has been increased from 96 million liters to 480 million liters in a fifteen-years period.
The production capacity of TEKEL has been increased from 50 million liters to 60 million liters between the period of 1969 and 1972. On the other hand, Efes Pilsen has increased its capacity from 22 million liters to 200 million liters until the 1980’s with the consumer supports. As a result of the customer orientation to private companies, TEKEL has started to lose its market share in a rapid way and consequently production has been reduced to 21 million liters in the 1980’s.
Currently, Efes company holds the dominant market share of 80% in the beer market by the production capacity of 910 million liters.
The beer consumption per capita in Turkey is much less than other European countries. Within the legal restriction that has been laid down on alcoholic beverages in 1984, the level of the beer consumption has decreased. By the efforts of the private companies, the consumption level has reached to 10.5 liters per capita in 1998. The lack of the existence of the beer culture in our country and the effects of the religious beliefs are the other factors that limit the development of the beer market.
In order to define the relationship between the companies and their market share in the sector, 4 P (product, place, price, and promotion) concept of marketing was examined. The product differentiation, price decision factors, distribution channels and promotion activities were analysed.
The interviews were made with the leading companies of the beer sector as Efes Pilsen and Tuborg, their marketing behaviours were extensively studied.
Besides the marketing point of view, a research was taken on the technology of the beer. After the preparation of the malt from the barley several stages such as mashing, filtration, boiling, cooling, fermentation, aging, filtration, filling and pasteurisation are achieved in the beer production.
Modern manufacturing techniques are applied in the beer sector to obtain products with a higher quality to meet the consumer needs and requirements and in order to compete with the exported beer products.