Good weather makes beer producers sigh with relief as feeble sales pick up

All three big producers - Zywiec Group, Kompania Piwowarska and Okocim have noted improvements in sales figures. Last year, producers blamed the weather for low sales, but March reversed that tendency. Okocim, with a 7.5% marketshare, hopes to regain some of the market. EB has launched a spring promotion of "non-alcohol" beer. Due to recent mergers, the big beer five has shrunken to the big three over the past two years. The most numerous group of beer producers remains local breweries. However, they are consistently losing their market, down from 35% to 33.4% in 1998. (Zycie, page 10)