Speakers at Canadean's International Beer Seminar, held in Prague in May, stressed the need to look at the beer market from a different perspective, according to The Canadean. The enlargement of the EU to include many of the beer markets of East & Central Europe, will pose significant challenges for the beer industry, a theme developed by Piero Perron, President of the Brewers of Europe, in his keynote address.

The Czech Market has seen a remarkable transformation from a highly localised and fragmented market, with no foreign investment, to a situation where three international brewing groups (SABMiller, Interbrew and Heineken) account for 67% of the market. A distinguished panel of speakers from Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen and Starobrno, all spoke about the challenges facing key players in the Czech Beer market.

In a dynamic presentation, Brent Willis, Interbrew's Chief Commercial Officer, talked about the repositioning of beer, whilst entrepreneur, Karan Bilimoria, presented a history of the Cobra brand. Hew Dalrymple, Marketing & Strategy Director for S&N's Waverley Vintners, contrasted the marketing of wine brands with beer.

Smaller brewers face unique challenges in a rapidly consolidating market. A panel, comprising Lorenz Dethleffsen from German brewer Flensburger, Jiri Fusek, Chairman of the Czech and European Association of Small Independent Brewers, and Anthony Fuller of "real ale" brewer, Fuller's, spoke about these challenges, and strategies for facing them.
Nearly 100 senior executives from the industry attended the seminar, and the impressive line up of speakers also included Canadean's Philippe Chan and Mike Harris, who talked about opportunities in the Asian market and perspectives from the Soft Drinks Industry respectively. Kim Slater, Director of Faraday Business Consulting, Canadean's consultancy arm, introduced delegates to the "Profit Pot", a business analysis model, developed by Faraday.

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