Russia: OAO Vena, the Russian brewery based in St. Petersburg, has launched the production of “Kronenbourg 1664”, a famous French beer brand, one of the best sold in European market, Russian Beer Union revealed in a statement on November 19. Vena brewery said it had invested US$220,000 in equipment to produce Kronenbourg 1664, which is going to become the most expensive beer in the premium licence segment of the market, having a retail price of RUB 28-31 per bottle. The French beer is sold in more than 70 countries of the world. Vena planned to produce 40,000 hl of Kronenbourg beer by 2005. OAO Vena was created on July 20 1992 and is controlled 49.9% by Swedish Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH), and 49.9% by Danish brewing giant Carlsberg.

The decision to produce under licence Kronenbourg 1664 at Vena brewery under control of Kronenbourg Breweries, owned by Scottish&Newcastle, was taken in winter 2004. The strong reason was the rapid growth of licence beer market in Russia: in 2003 this segment increased by 102%, versus previous year. According to Business Analitika the volume of licence beer market in Russia increased 73% in the first 8 months of 2004, which exceeds five times the growth of the whole beer market (the average index-13%). This segment is a high competitive one. Nowadays 40 beer brands are produced in Russia under licence.

OAO Vena is brewing Nevskoye beer and is bottling Tuborg beer under licence. The brewery is also producing low-alcohol beverages. In 2003 Vena increased its sales volumes by 24.7% versus 2002 up to 163 million litres. The company’s net profit accounted for RUB 174.5 million in 2003. Now OAO Vena is in the process of merging with OAO Zolotoy Ural, based in Chelyabinsk.

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