A hot summer means hot sales for Kompania Piwowarska and Zywiec

Good weather is good news for the beverage and ice-cream industries. About 60% of annual beer sales fall between the months of May and October. At least 80% of ice-cream is also sold during this period. The annual beer market is worth over zl. 5 billion. The value of alcohol-free drinks is placed at zl. 4.7 billion, and tea and coffee at a more modest zl. 1.6 billion. "During a hot summer the demand for mineral water surges by between 10% to 15%," said Dawid Wasowicz from Maspex, a company who purchased shares in the Multivita mineral water company this year. In July Kompania Piw owarska (KP) produced 967,800 hectoliters of beer, which is 8.6% higher than last year, while it sold 4.8 millions hectoliters of beer from January to July, a figure 9% higher than for the same period of 2001. The Zywiec Group is ahead of KP (but by only a small margin), holding a 30.8% share of the market during the first six months of 2002. "We experienced a 10% increase in beer sales for the first half, and this tendency has been maintained over July and August," said Krzysztof Rut, a director of Zywiec. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) P.W.