Romania: Beer market reaches 1 bil euros in an extremely hot summer

Beer consumption will rech a record quantity of 20.3 mil hl in 2007, 25% higher than in 2006, Ziarul Financiar published June 15. In consequence the beer market will surpass 1 bil euros in 2007 compared with 752 mil euros in 2006, producers estimate.

The “big 4”: SABMiller Plc, United Breweries Bereprod SRL (URBB), Heineken and InBev, forecast the highest sales from their arrival in Romania.

“The beer market is growing continuously. It is a trend which we expected, taking into consideration the Romanians increasing purchasing capacity, products quality improvement, investments in promotion and, why not, the hot weather”, Constantin Bratu, “Romanian Brewers Association” general director, said in a statement.

“I estimate an increasing trend in 2007 of 25%”, Bratu added.

Beer sales constituted 2.54 mil hl in 2007, for the “big 4”, compared with 1.85 mil hl in 2006.

URBB, the producer of Tuborg and Carlberg, announced a 25% growth in beer sales. In the same time, for InBev, the producer of Bergenbier, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Leffe, Lowenbrau and Noroc, the increase was of 40%.

Beer companies are trying to get bigger market shares this summer, driven by the consumer’s behaviour, influenced by weather conditions.

Yet in the firs month of the year, the brewers invested 54.3 mil euros in promotion, compared with 42.2 mil euros in 2006, Brewers Association reveals.

“We will see a genuine marketing war on the beer market this summer”, Daniel Mihailescu, economic analyst, said. “Companies announced budgets of tens of millions euros for launching, sustaining and promoting new products and growing the sales”.

According to AC Nielsen Analyst Company, the most sold beer on the retail segment is Burger, of European Food Company. The second is Bergenbier (Interbrew), the podium being completed by Newmarkt (Bere Mures).

PET beer is in the top of preferences. “Big quantity at a lower price is the philosophy of Romanian customer”, Dan Mihailescu said. The promotion campaigns have intuited the customers’ predisposition for this type of package. And there are some other advantages of PET; it is simply to wash and reutilize, has no additional costs, like glass package, etc.

According to Constantin Bratu, besides the PET segment growth, he expects an increase in premium segment, of quality beer.

The beer consumption in Romania constitutes 81 litres per capita, higher than in Poland (77 litres), Slovenia (74 litres). The leader is Czech Republic, with 161 litres.

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