First good sign for brewers after summer has passed

Sales of beer, the second-largest market in the consumer goods industry after the cigarettes market, fell by 7.5% in September compared with the similar time last year, according to ZF estimates based on data from the National Statistics Institute (INS). This is the first sign of recovery recorded in the beer industry, after the shock dealt to producers in the summer, when sales declined by up to 25% at market level. Due to the results recorded in the summer, beer sales fell by over 18% in the third quarter of the year, with managers of the largest companies in the industry keeping from making estimates on the performance of the beer market at the end of 2009. "Under the current economic conditions it is difficult to give an accurate estimate," said Stephan Maria Weber, chairman of Ursus Breweries, a company with an over 325 million-euro turnover last year.