Warm summer good for brewers: beer sales up 6% in July and August

July and August brought a 6% and 7%, respectively, beer sales increase against a year ago, a pace industry companies had not posted since October 2008, the moment that virtually marked the last steady growth of the over 1bn-euro market in the past two years.

As a result of the high summer temperatures and the aggressive promotion campaigns, beer producers saw slight sales increases in July and August, a period when consumption went beyond 2 million hectolitres per month, according to ZF calculations based on National Statistics Institute information.
Thus, during the summer season, monthly beer consumption per capita climbed to 9 litres, considering the monthly average of the first half reached 6 litres of beer per capita.
However, brewers do not expect the market to grow this year, with the two summer months' advance only clipping the total market decline.
In this year's first half, beer sales dropped by 7.5% to 7.9 million hectolitres, after the second quarter witnessed smaller declines against the same period of the previous year. This drop in beer consumption made the biggest brewers on the market, Ursus Breweries, Heineken Romania and Bergenbier resort to various cost-cutting solutions, plant closures included.