Ursus loses one more key executive

Indrin Pillay, financial vicepresident of beer producer Ursus Breweries, a company that logged over 325 million euros in turnover in 2008, will step down from his position with the local subsidiary of giant SABMiller, and take over a position at the company's European headquarters (Switzerland).

Ursus Breweries will be temporarily left without a financial vicepresident only weeks after the company's president, Stephan Maria Weber, announced he was stepping down from the helm of the beer producer for personal reasons.

"My decision to leave is not a recent one, talks started a few months ago. When I came to Ursus, in 2006, there were three new members of the company's management team and another two had been appointed recently, so this change is much less significant. The organisation (SABMiller i.e.) did not see it necessary to keep me here for a few more months, although the president has recently left," Indrin Pillay, 47, told ZF.

A graduate of the Finance and Accounting Faculty within Witwatersrand University in South Africa, as well as of an MBA within Heriot-Watt University in the UK, Pillay has been working for SABMiller for 15 years. Before taking over as financial vicepresident of Ursus Breweries, he held various positions within SABMilller South Africa.

Pillay started to work within Ursus Breweries in October 2006 and was part of the management of the Romanian subsidiary at the time when it saw its biggest turnover increase, from 188 million euros in 2006, to over 325 million euros at the end of 2008, a rise that Pillay deems as unprecedented during his entire 15 years of working within SABMiller.

Company officials say it has not been decided who will replace Pillay, but that the new VP would very likely come from within SABMiller.

As for the position of company president, Ursus representatives say an interim president has yet to be designated.

Ursus Breweries, producer of Ursus, Timisoreana, and Ciucas beers, recorded an 18% decline in the volume of sales in the last three months of the year, against the similar period in 2008, when the company posted an 11% growth.

However, during the same period, the company boosted its market share to 31% from over 26% a year ago, accounting for a third of overall beer sales in Romania.