Romania: SABMiller, the second largest brewer in the world, announced on 04 October 2004 a 12% volume growth of its sales on the Romanian market for the first eight months of this year compared to the similar period of the previous year. The results on the Romanian market are contrary to the market decrease and even exceed the growth recorded by the group in Europe.

“Our European businesses generated good results and an organic growth of 3%. Besides the volume increases in Romania and Russia, the sales from the Polish and Czech markets grew in the second quarter of the year compared to the first three months, but the growth was partially neutralized by the situation from Italy and Hungary”, announced SABMiller.

Octavian Buzoianu, the Corporate Affairs Manager of SABMiller Romania, says that the company’s sales were good and grew against the trend of the beer market.

Ursus, Timisoreana, Aurora and Ciucas are the most important brands held by SABMiller in Romania. “Our sales went well although the weather was rather unfavorable and the market recorded a slight decrease. I think the growth is generated by the strength of our Romanian traditional brands”, claims Buzoianu. He estimates an overall growth of 15% for the year 2004.

The rainy weather during summertime had a strong impact on the beer sales, especially that it is usually in May – August that are recorded 50% of a year’s sales. The estimations regarding the losses incurred by the players from the beer industry amounted to around 30 million dollars (600,000 hectoliters).

The market had started the year in a rather good shape, with a 10-15% growth in the first months, and the large brewers were expecting sales even better than last year, when the market grew by 10%, reaching 12.8 million hectoliters for a value of around 550 million Euros. SABMiller holds five breweries in Timisoara, Buzau, Pitesti, Cluj and Brasov and a market share of 22%. The company has recently purchased Aurora Brasov for 20 million dollars, this transaction bringing SABMiller back on the second position on the Romanian beer market. Aurora Brasov has been one of last year’s best performers in the brewing industry, recording a sales growth of 26.8%, up to 664,000 hectoliters and a market share of 5.2%. After the takeover of Aurora Brasov, the beer company announced a reorganization program under which it will cut down the number of employees by 30%.

The brewing market is one of the most competitive in Europe. The first four market players belong to international groups that are among the first five largest beer producers in the world: Brau Union Romania, last year’s market leader with 32%, is part of Heineken group; SABMiller Romania and Interbrew Romania have 16% and are the subsidiaries of the third and respectively first global leaders; Tubord Romania ranks fourth with 7% and is part of the Danish group Carlsberg – fifth on the international level.

Over the past years, the segments having recorded the highest growth are super-premium (and international premium) and value (PET-bottled). In addition, European Drinks entered the market this year and soon became one of the first five largest players.

Last year, SABMiller brewed 137 million hectoliters of beer internationally and owns production facilities in 40 countries all over the world. The company is one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers outside the US. SABMiller closed the tax year ending on the 31st of March 2004 with a turnover reaching about 13 billion dollars. The company is listed on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges.

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