An employee at Central Supermarket in downtown Yangon inspects shelves of local and imported beer.

WATER festival is a time of celebration. For many people that means indulging in a few more drinks than normal, whether they are alcoholic or not.

For the beverage industry, April is the busiest month of the year – beer and soft drink sales volumes increase by about five or six times normal levels.

Distributors begin stocking up in late March to boost profit – beer prices, for example, increase by up to 20 percent during the four-day festival.

Drinks & Dream Company (D&D) distributes beer and soft drinks to more than 60 retail outlets in Yangon. The company’s managing director, U Kyaw Moe Aung, said the only way wholesale distributors can meet the massive demand during the festival is to increase stock levels well in advance.

About 80 percent of the soft drinks market is dominated by two companies – Loi Hein and Max Group.

“We have to collect all the products we need during last ten days of the March and first ten days of April to meet client demand during the water festival. In March we receive beverages produced outside of Yangon – from “highway clients” – and those produced in Yangon during April,” U Kyaw Moe Aung said.

He said most wholesalers suspend distribution to outlets in the three weeks before Thingyan to “balance prices”.

“The regular wholesale price for a bottle of Myanmar Beer is now only K1020 to 1050. Last year, just before water festival, it rose to K1180 to K1200,” he said. “If [wholesalers] distribute now, they will make less profit than if they distribute closer to the start of the festival,” a wholesaler at Yuzana Plaza told The Myanmar Times.

There are four major beverage wholesale centres in Yangon – Yuzana Plaza, Mingalar Market, Nyaung Bin Lay Market and Chinatown. Each year, wholesalers from these four centres meet in the last week of March to solve pricing issues and set the wholesale prices for the items.

“Normally, sales volumes for beer during the four days of Thingyan increase by up to six times normal. So the wholesale prices rise anywhere from 5pc to 20pc,” a wholesaler from the Chinatown area said.

Myanmar Beer is the dominant product in the local market and comprises up to 35pc of all beer sales, according to U Kyaw Moe Aung.

“The taste of Myanmar Beer is mild and not as strong and bitter as the other foreign products. This taste is liked by the local customers so Myanmar Beer is the most popular in the market,” he said.

Mandalay, Tiger, Dagon, Skol and Spirulina are other domestically-produced beers available in the local market. Several imported beers can also be found on supermarket shelves, including Heineken, Chang, Carlsberg, Singha and Asahi. However, they are more expensive and possess a much smaller market share.

There is a larger diversity of soft drink products in the local market, but 80pc of products come from two companies – Loi Hein and Max Group – according to a wholesale distributor in Mingalar Market. Sales of soft drinks – which range in price from K200 to K250 in the wholesale market – also increase significantly during Thingyan, the distributor said.

“If you take canned soft drinks out of the equation, sales volumes for bottled soft drinks usually double during water festival. The local, bottled soft drinks are popular among customers because of their freshness and reasonable price – they are about three times cheaper than the imported canned soft drinks,” he added.