The "Men's Day" campaign launched at the beginning of this year by the Bergenbier producer, generated a 59% sales increase for InBev, the brand's owner, in February this year, against the same time in 2006, making February the month with highest growth rate for the Bergenbier producer.
In the first half of this year, the company reported a 27% sales increase on the Romanian market, over 10% more than the rate seen by the Belgian producer on the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
"In the first half of 2007, February registered the highest percentage increase, when sales went up by 59% against the same period of 2006. This increase was made possible by the launch of the "Men's Day" promotional campaign, with over 400,000 voters taking part", stated InBev representatives.
The company did not provide data on the volume of sales or on their value.
The Bergenbier producer witnessed a 14.7% rise in imports of Leffe and Hoegarden beer, the only imported brands in the company's portfolio.
InBev sold over 23.3 million hectolitres of beer in the first half of this year in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia and Ukraine, and registered over one billion euros in revenues in the region, up 25% against the first six months of 2006.
Beer sales on the domestic market exceeded estimates by far, given that the producers had forecast a 5-10% market growth at the beginning of the year.
The warm weather, the large number of brands present on the shelves (over 100), the producers' promotional investments, and the PET bottled beer in particular, contradicted major player's initial estimates, as beer sales increased by over 20% in the first six months of the year, to more than 9 million hectolitres.
Based on the results registered in the first half of the year, beer sales on the domestic market could exceed 1.2 billion euros this year, while consumption per capita could approach 90 litres. In terms of beer consumption per capita, Romania is already among the ten leading international markets.
The leading markets in the EU in terms of beer consumption are the Czech Republic (160 litres/capita), Germany (118), Austria (111) and Denmark (90). Ranked bottom are Italy and France, with an annual beer consumption of 30 litres per capita.
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