Czech Republic: Pivovary Staropramen posts a CZK 240.5 million profit in fiscal 2005

Pivovary Staropramen, the second largest domestic beer producer, was back in black figures last year when it netted CZK 240.5 million after a CZK 22 million loss and its sales grew by 2 percent to CZK 3.5 billion, spokeswoman Michaela Tryznova told CTK after a general meeting on June 16.

The shareholders decided that the profit will be used for covering part of the losses from previous years.

Beer sale rose by 3.2 percent to 2.884 million hectolitres. "Exports contributed to the overall increase in the amount of the sold hectolitres [last year]. Net exports grew by 18.5 percent to 547,200 hectolitres," said Tryznova, adding that the company is thus also the second largest Czech beer exporter.

Staropramen is exported to thirty world countries and on foreign markets belongs into the segment of premium and superpremium beers. Among the most important export markets are Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Slovakia.

"In 2005, foreign licence production of the Staropramen brand rose in a significant way - by 76 percent to 384,000 hectolitres. [Lager] Staropramen Svetly is brewed under licence in Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine," Tryznova noted.

Pivovary Staropramen in 2004 cut loss form CZK 45 million to CZK 22 million and its sales increased by 8.2 percent to CZK 3.43 billion.

Pivovary Staropramen with a 14 percent market share is the second largest beer producer in the Czech Republic and the second largest Czech beer exporter. The company is part of global group InBev, the largest brewing group in the world.

Overall, Czech breweries enjoy growing interest in their production abroad where they exported some 3.1 million hectolitres of beer last year, up 17 percent year-on-year.

With a moderate fall in the sale on the domestic market, exports are the driving force of the growth in output which rose by some 1.7 percent to 19.07 million hectolitres last year.

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