Carlsberg Breweries A/S said that “it believes the much-feared slowdown in the Russian beer market is not as severe as previously believed.” Carlsberg CEO Niels Smedegaard tells Dow Jones that Carlsberg sees "a clear growth trend in 2003" for the Russian beer market, in spite of the previous slowdown. “Even though the last few years' soaring demand may be over, the market is likely to grow more than in Western Europe,” he says.

A number of lower-than-expected growth prognoses for the Russian beer market, including one from Carlsberg subsidiary Baltika at the end of last year, cast a shadow over the targets of a number of producers. "We first predicted between 10% and 13% growth, but in the first half of 2002 we started seeing growth sometimes of 40%. But it turned out this was stockpiling by wholesalers," Andersen said. "Then we saw a decline in the third quarter, partly also due the cold weather coming on sooner. But we still expect 10%-12% growth last year," he added.

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