Beer sales down

   A slowdown in beer sales and a fall in profit at the country’s breweries during 2000 have left beer companies with an uncertain outlook for the year ahead. For 2001, the market will probably have a 5-6% growth rate compared to 11% last year, according to Krzysztof Rut, press spokesman for Grupa —ywiec. This compares to 102% growth between 1990 and 1999 as beer consumption per person in Poland increased from 30 to 61 liters, according to a report on beer market by Case-Doradcy.

   Meanwhile, costs grew dramatically this year with excise rising to 11%. At the same time, the price of malt almost doubled from DM400 to DM700 a tonne, said Bogna Sikorska, an analyst at CDM Pekao. The effect has been increased competition between breweries, which have increased advertising budgets all around, Sikorska said. “The costs can’t be transfered to the consumers,” she said.

   Although —ywiec Group is still the leader on the beer market with a 31% market share, Kompania Piwowarska, which produces Tyskie and Lech, came close to catching up with 28.6% in October, according to CDM Pekao. “The year 2000 is a great market success for Tyskie,” said Andrzej D3ugosz, press spokesman for the industry. Sales of Tyskie surpassed —ywiec, traditionally the No. 1 beer, he said.

   Elsewhere, Brau Union, an Austrian beer group, has been aggressively pursuing a strategy to acquire a 10% share in the Polish beer market within two years. Brau Union has been consolidating mid-sized breweries under its ownership as it purchased Van Pur, Kujawiak and Browary Warszawskie for about z3. 320 million ($69.5 million), which gave it 9.7% of the market, Sikorska said.