Romania: Tuborg announced 15 mil Euros for marketing in 2007

United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (URBB), producing Tuborg and Carlsberg brands under licence, has earmarked a net sum of 15 million euros this year for marketing activities, says Shachar Shaine, the company's chairman, according to Ziarul Financiar, April 24.

URBB's marketing budget is 40% bigger this year against 2006, according to company information. "Of the 15 million euros we're earmarking for the marketing budget, 5 million euros will be used for the promotion of brands in the media," said Shaine.

During the 2004-2005 period, URBB invested around 50 million euros (rate-card) in TV and radio promotion, according to the data provided by AlfaCont tracking firm.

According to URBB chairman, investments in marketing will be directed to event organisation, product promotion in outlets and to media promotion.

Of the 5 million euros destined to media promotion, the company will use one million euros for the Holsten brand alone, with the same sum to be used for the promotion of Skol brand.

URBB is present on the beer market only on the premium and super-premium segment, with Skol, Tuborg, Carlsberg, Holsten, Guinness and Kilkenny brands, with the last two being imported brands. The company is also the domestic distributor of Orangina and Granini soft drinks through the Carlsrom Beverages unit.

The brewer will also invest 15.4 million euros this year to double the production capacity of the plant it owns close to Bucharest, to 2 million hectolitres. At the end of last year, the company had a production capacity of 1.4 million hectolitres. The investments are meant to take the 50 million dollars (38.5 million euros) project the company started last year further. The project is related to the construction of a brewery to become operational in June 2007.

In 2006, brewers were among the biggest investors in advertising domestically, ranking second after telecommunication firms, while in terms of visibility on TV, beer brand spots gained the first position.

URBB expects its financial indicators to improve by 30% this year, after the company registered turnover worth some 100 million euros last year, according to some estimates based on the growth pace reported by the company. In the first three months of this year, URBB posted 25% higher sales, after the volumes of Turborg sold in March alone were 36% bigger compared with the same period of last year.

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