Ukraine: Sarmat to target low-price segment of beer market

Donetsk-based Sarmat beer group, one of Ukraine's four major beer producers, is planning to target the low-price segment of the Ukrainian beer market, Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge released August 15.

"We decided to compete actively in the low-price segment," Sarmat Group Director General Serhiy Kalinin told the press last week. He said that this year company's key rivals are working actively in this segment. In particular, he said that Sarmat had launched the production of Dnipro Klasychne beer, which retail price is UAH 1.5 per liter.

"Dnipro Klasychne would be the cheapest beer in Ukraine," Kalinin said. The group expects by the end of the current year, the share of the Dnipro brand of the Ukrainian beer market would be 2.2%, against its present 1.6-1.7%. As reported, the group boosted beer sales by 7% in the first six months of 2006, year-over-year, to 1.41 million hl.

Sarmat incorporates five breweries: opened JSC Luhansk brewery, opened JSC Krym beer and non-alcoholic bottling plant, closed Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro brewery, closed JSC Poltavpyvo, and a Donetsk-based brewery. The group's share of the Ukrainian market in 2005 was 13.2%. Donetsk-based System Capital Management owns a 99% stake in Sarmat.