Cool summer extinguishes thirst for beer; July sales drop 21.7% from last year

Beer sales in July dropped 21.7% compared to last July and the rate of sales growth has slowed to 6% for the year. It was a promising start for breweries this year when sales increased 12% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year but due to very cold weather in July it all went wrong. The sale's result for the whole sector would be even worse if it were not for Kompania Piwowarska (KP) (Lech and Tychy) which has 27% of the beer production market. KP succeeded in selling more or less the same quantity of beer as last July. However a poor July caused a decrease in the rate of sales growth from 53% after the first six months to 40% after July. (Puls Biznesu, page 5) A.D.