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In Nigeria’s Beer Market
Gulder once owned a phrase every Nigerian beer drinker understood: “The Ultimate.” For decades it sat on the top shelf of imagination and sales, the confident, slightly bitter lager you ordered when you wanted to signal taste and a bit of status. But in 2024 and 2025, that posture changed. Gulder is still a major brand in Nigerian Breweries’ portfolio, but it is no longer the unchallenged “ultimate” in market mindshare. A mix of shifting consumer tastes, price pressure, clever line extensions from rivals, and the rise of new niche brewers has eroded the halo that used to surround the brand.
Nigerian Breweries is far from dead: the company reported strong headline revenue growth in 2025 and remains one of the country’s dominant brewers, yet these corporate numbers mask shifting product-level dynamics. Premium lager volumes, the segment Gulder historically anchored, have been under pressure as consumers trade down or trade sideways into new variants and lower-cost alternatives.
Nigerian Breweries’ Q2 2025 results show the company recovering top-line revenue after a tough period, but the company’s own filings and market commentary point to changing consumption patterns across brands. At the same time, Nigeria’s beer market is splintering. The overall market is attractive, estimated in the billions of dollars, but growth is uneven. Premium offerings face headwinds from inflation and an increasingly price-sensitive mainstream, while smaller local craft players and tactical line extensions such as dark lagers, flavored variants, and lower-cost stouts are grabbing attention and shelf space from legacy premium names.
Part of Gulder’s slide is due to defensive marketing and product innovation by competitors, including some from within Nigerian Breweries’ own stable. Goldberg, relaunched in recent years, has been pushed hard at mass-market price points and with refreshed packaging aimed at younger consumers. Nigerian Breweries also introduced Goldberg Black, a darker 6% ABV variant brewed with dark malt, designed to capture drinkers looking for a richer, more novel flavour while still staying within accessible price and distribution channels. Goldberg Black was a purposeful attempt to deepen volume sales and reshape the lager conversation.
Independently, stout and small-pack options, including Trophy and various local stouts and “small stout” bottles, have also eaten into premium-lager sales at the lower end of the market. On-the-ground reporting from bars and taverns shows operators selling more of the lighter-priced brands and stouts because they match what their customers can afford and what their customers say they prefer. The pandemic-era recession and ongoing inflation nudged many consumers toward cheaper packs and different styles that deliver perceived better value.
A major part of this story is what people themselves say. Some long-time Gulder consumers admit they moved away after feeling the brand stopped resonating with their lifestyle or price expectations. Customers increasingly choose Goldberg or Trophy, often because those beers are cheaper, lighter, or now come in flavors and formats that appeal to younger drinkers. Bartenders note that customers often say lighter lagers feel less heavy and are less likely to cause a hangover, while smaller bottles let them socialise without overspending.
A bar owner in Surulere, Lagos, explained, “We used to sell at least four crates of Gulder on a Friday night ten years ago. Now, we are lucky if we sell one. People ask for Goldberg, Trophy, or Guinness Foreign Extra. Gulder is no longer moving like before.” Another consumer, a 38-year-old mechanic in Ikeja, said, “I grew up watching adverts that called Gulder the ultimate. It felt classy then. But now, if you bring N1,500 to the bar, you want to drink what can last. Gulder doesn’t give me that.”
Academic and market case studies of line extensions such as the short-lived Gulder Max point to product mismatches. Poor perception of colour, taste, or positioning can doom a sub-brand, and when a brand extension disappoints, it softens loyalty to the parent brand. That appears to have happened with Gulder’s experiments. Even loyal customers admit they struggled with some of the newer attempts. A long-time Gulder loyalist in Benin City told us, “I still drink Gulder because it reminds me of the old days. But I will not lie, when they brought Gulder Max, it was confusing. The taste was not the Gulder I knew. Since then, many people I know just stopped bothering.”
There are still consumers who defend Gulder passionately. They cite the beer’s original recipe profile, its heritage as a premium lager since the 1970s, and an emotional attachment to the advertising and cultural moments that made it “the Ultimate.” Loyal customers say what has changed is the brand’s relative visibility among newer formats and that younger drinkers simply don’t regard “ultimate” the same way their elders did. The love is there, but it is numerically smaller, and every sale counts.
The statistics paint the decline starkly. Gulder once commanded close to 18 percent of the premium lager market share in Nigeria during the late 2000s, but by 2023, that figure had dropped below 7 percent. In the early 2010s, Gulder’s annual sales volumes were estimated at over 2 million hectoliters, but by 2022 this had declined to around 800,000 hectoliters, according to industry reports.
Meanwhile, brands like Goldberg have surged. Data shows Goldberg grew by more than 25 percent between 2020 and 2023, overtaking Gulder in many regional markets in the South West and North Central zones. Trophy, which Heineken also owns, has seen strong double-digit growth as well, gaining loyalty among working-class consumers. In contrast, Gulder’s sales curve has been largely downward.
The reasons many drinkers are not taking it anymore are clear. Inflation and multiple price hikes nudged many consumers toward cheaper alternatives. Dark lagers, flavored variants, and stout formats positioned as modern or local craft offered novelty that displaced habitual choices. Line extensions that confused or disappointed consumers weakened the prestige around the Gulder name. And on-trade outlets like bars and clubs increasingly favor fast-moving stock and smaller packs that drive volume for rival brands. A retailer in Abuja put it bluntly: “If you stock too much Gulder, it will sit. People want what is hot and affordable. Right now, that is not Gulder.”
Gulder isn’t extinct; it is repositioning in a tougher market. Nigerian Breweries still treats it as a key brand in a complex portfolio, and company filings show active product and marketing efforts to keep it relevant. But the “ultimate” status is no longer a given. It must be earned again through clearer positioning, sharper value offers, or relevant innovation that speaks to how modern Nigerian consumers drink today. Loyalty alone won’t protect a legacy lager in a fragmented, cash-strapped market.
Brands that win today either deliver better price-value, reinvent their sensory promise with taste and packaging, or capture new cultural moments. Gulder still has the heritage, but turning that into future market dominance will depend on smarter extensions and on-the-ground value for the drinker, exactly where some rivals have been more nimble.
By Benprince Ezeh
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