The Romanian beer market is still posting strong growth, prompted by the increasing sales of both cheap and expensive beer brands.
According to brewers' estimates, the market went up 10-15 percent in Q1, 2004 from the year-ago period. Companies selling international premium and super-premium brands reported higher-than-expected growth.
The market growth is deemed as surprising for at least two reasons. First, annual consumption had already surged 12% last year, to a record high of 12.8 million hectolitres, which made brewers expect only 5% growth in 2004. Second, Romanians never spend too much on beer in the first three months of the year, when maintenance expenses "swallow" a large portion of the family budgets.
Nevertheless, in the first quarter of 2004, three of the top four market players posted more than 10% growth.
Sales of Interbrew Romania, the second-largest brewer, went up 42%, SABMiller (number three) witnessed a 10% increase, whereas Tuborg Romania, the fourth-largest player, went up 28%.
At the same time, European Drinks, which entered the market at the end of last year, is already among the top five players, mainly due to PET beer sales. Interbrew and Tuborg Romania, the companies that boasted the fastest growth pace as compared to the previous year, hold the top two positions on the expensive beer segments (super-premium and international premium) with Stella Artois and Beck's, Carlsberg and Tuborg respectively.
"Two factors contributed to the surge: the spectacular increase in the volumes of premium brands, Stella Artois and Beck's, as well as the evolution of the Q-Pack Bergenbier bottles," says Mihai Albu, general manager of Interbrew Romania. "We've witnessed growth on all segments, with Carlsberg, Tuborg and Skol. Q1 results were boosted by the launch of Tuborg Royal Export, whose sales were beyond our expectations," states Shachar Shaine, marketing and sales vice-president with Tuborg Romania.
Brewers say market growth is due to the expensive brands, but that the main role was played by the increase in the PET beer consumption.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro
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