Bulgaria: Bulgaria beer sales increased by 13% in January-October 2006

Domestic beer consumption of Bulgaria increased by 13.1% year-on-year to 4.3 mln hectoliters in the first 10 months of 2006, Dnevnik.bg communicated on November 12th. However, October sales fell 21.1% month-on-month to 340,900 hectoliters, shows data released by the Union of Brewers in Bulgaria (UBB).

The data published by the UBB does not include the business of locally-owned non-member Ledenika&MM.

Heineken-owned Zagorka AD continue to outsell competing brands year-to-date, moving 1.36 mln hectoliters for the market-leading position. The company also notched up the best performance for the month of October with 114,600 hectoliters.

Carlsberg Bulgaria, the runner-up in October with 93,028 hectolitres, is catching up to Kamenitza in the YTD rankings with 1.024 mln hectolitres but has still some way to go to overtake the 1.3 mln hectoliters sold by its InBev-owned rival in the first 10 months of the year. Kamenitza was no.3 in October with sales of 91,364 hectolitres.

InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg Bulgaria own 76% of the total beer market.

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