Czech Republic: Pivovary Staropramen named Tunc Cerrahoglu in the position of General Manager

Tunc Cerrahoglu took up the position of general manager at Pivovary Staropramen in April this year and inherited a € 20 million (Kč 568 million) modernization project at the group’s Prague 5 – Smíchov brewery, as well as the task of pushing forward a rebranding exercise for the group’s flagship beer, Czech Business released July 17.

Despite stagnating domestic beer sales, Cerrahoglu takes over at a good time for the brewery, following a year when Staropramen returned to the black after posting losses since the beginning of the decade.

The company netted profit of Kč 240.47 million in 2005 on sales of 2.88 million hectoliters of beer, which was helped by an 18 percent rise in exports. The growth in exports, said Cerrahoglu, shows the strong role that Staropramen plays in the portfolio of parent company InBev, a Belgian beverage group. In the Czech Republic, Staropramen remains the brewery’s “bread and butter,” according to Cerrahoglu, but he says that the wide range of imported InBev brands can definitely help the company grow its current 21 percent market share – placing it behind market leader Plzeňský Prazdroj (owned by SABMiller) and just ahead of the last state-owned brewer, Budějovický Budvar.

Tunc Cerrahoglu said: “For me, the key target is how to make Staropramen, as a brand, even more successful than it has been. It’s a great pleasure because [the Czech Republic] is one of the ‘cradles’ of beer in the world, like Belgium. It’s a challenging environment because there’s a strong beer culture and strong players in the marketplace. Here, recently, we have some evidence that beer is actually losing against some other beverages, even though the per capita [consumption] is the highest in the world [at over 165 liters per person annually].”

“InBev will also be consolidating its support services in the Czech Republic and Prague was chosen as one of the key centers for InBev. It’s around 100 new jobs. I think that’s a huge success for the Czech Republic. The team worked very hard. Now it’s just to establish it. From the meetings I’ve attended, there is significant recruitment and training going on. It’s a huge investment for InBev,” Cerrahoglu stated.

“Staropramen is one of the global brands that we have in InBev’s key markets,” Staropramen general manager added. “For example, in Ukraine we have grown sales thirteen-fold, and in Russia it’s growing 35 percent. In Sweden, it’s the best-selling imported beer, and also in the United Kingdom it’s the most popular Czech draft beer. At InBev it’s a clear player in the portfolio and is sold as premium Czech beer in these markets.”

Staropramen is exported to more than 30 markets.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .