Almost half a year has gone, we are entering to the next half. Nothing much has change in the beer industry, except that there will be another price hike of 3-4% in June for both GAB and Carlsberg product in Malaysia.
For me, last year is a boring beer scene year. We didn’t see many new concept bars and what happen is, many bars move from KL town to Ipoh or Penang. While the scene here drop to a standard boring same thing. All the new bars in the market are just a copy of other bars that doesn’t show much of idea input to opening a bar.
Of course, lately many people are toying with opening a cocktail bar. One that just opened 1 month back is Omakase + Appreciate at Ming Annexe Building in KL. A small hidden place in town. More bars are looking for new drinks to add on to their menus.
Of course, I’m mostly busy with my own Ales & Lagers, which for many is quite hidden as well. We did get a lot of enquiries from many customer about the beer market here. If you asked me, I’ll be like an opposition slogan “UBAH”. I think bar should now change and adapt into different scenario, rather then just fighting for the market, we create a different genre to capture the market. Of course, this mean a lot of advertising and promotion to capture the crowd.
The best place doesn’t mean it’s crowded but thumbs up given by the customer every time they came. Many consumer are looking for something new and fresh but the market don’t offer this type of alternative. Not many willing to take the risk, just like Taps Beer Bar open more then 1 year now many beer drinkers still haven’t pay them a visit to try good craft beers for around the world. Most consumer will go for advertise brand, but sometimes is the specialty places that offer the best thing in town.
More and more specialty bar scene are setup and many are in the planning. I hear there will be tequila bar coming out soon, more whisky bar are in the midst of planning. I have no doubt may of this place will be a big hit if they push the right concept. Concept of just having fun in a place is no more that outstanding this days. Weirdly, the trend setter of today is not the young 20-30 age group. They are actually the part that hold back the industry, getting drunk and have no clue what they drank.
The 30-40 age group have become the module of trend setter that eyeing for specialty product and this will certainly boost bar concept. Prices will always determine the crowd but noble good product will have a good range of customer visiting the places.
I hope new concept bars come in to KL soon to start the trend, I have heard the plea for good places lately where many business owner are lacking in concepts and ideas. Stop following the trend and start creating a new idea that can capture a niche market that will evolve.
For many out there, a beer is still a beer, but for beer fanatic like me a beer means a lot of things. The saying goes, “Good People Drink Good Beer”. Cheers!
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