December 2004

<For your reference>

Suntory Brewing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. to win “Excellent Enterprise Award”
from Chinese Brewing Association
- For Shanghai Beer Factory's highly acclaimed productivity and quality -

Suntory Brewing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Director & General Manager: Kazuo Nakatani) won “Excellent Enterprise Award” from Chinese Brewing Association (or CBA). At the same time, CBA named two employees from the company, Gao Feng, Deputy General Manager, and Wang Linhui, Packaging Manager as the winners of “Excellent Individual Award.”

“Excellent Enterprise Award” was granted to Suntory Brewing Shanghai in recognition of its superb quality beer production and acclaimed position in the market. At the award ceremony held in November, a variety of appraisals were stated including “a remarkable internal reform,” “an outstanding technological advancement,” “an excellent factory operation system including staff management,” ” an enthusiastic attitude toward environmental preservation,” and so on. Furthermore, “Excellent Individual Award” was given to recognize two individuals for achieving high packaging productivity through an adoption of TPM or total productive maintenance activities implemented since 4 years ago.

Shanghai Suntory Brewing Co., Ltd., later renamed as Suntory Brewing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., was established as a joint venture in 1995, releasing “Suntory Beer <Gold> & <White>” in 1996 to enter the beer market in Shanghai. Since then, the brand has been highly recognized for its quality and flavor to maintain a steady growth in the intensely competitive Shanghai market. Even after the market share climbed up to the top position in 1999, Suntory Shanghai strives for introducing new products and expanding the business through its own sales activities and distribution policies, which has led to gain over a 40% share and to establish its position as the leading brewer.

• Chinese Brewing Association (CBA)

Chinese Brewing Association was inaugurated in 1992 to develop the domestic alcohol industry in China. Almost all alcohol producers including beer, baijiu or white spirit, huangjiu or yellow spirit, liqueurs, and alcohol for industrial use belong to this association with a total number of over 3,000 companies throughout the greater China.

• “Excellent Enterprise Award” & “Excellent Individual Award”

CBA newly established “Excellent Enterprise Award” and “Excellent Individual Award” this year, and selected 100 companies and 100 individuals respectively among the 3,000+ member firms to recognize for their “contributions in development of the Chinese alcohol industry with outstanding technology.” Suntory Brewing was the only recipient of “Excellent Enterprise Award” among the beer companies in Shanghai, and the only one in the beer category to be named for two individuals' awards.