Kompania Piwowarska wants to slake more Polish thirst

KP's strategy is to focus on investments in its leading beer brands (Tyskie, Lech, Zubr) and the development of its distribution network. "Development is not only marketing. It also requires investments and we are implementing such investments in our three plants this year. The expenditure on those investments is to exceed zl.200 million this year," declared Mark Bowman, KP's general director. The company can afford the investments since, in the accounting year finished on 31 March, 2006, it generated a net profit of zl.570 million. As a result of investments in its breweries in Poznan, Bialystok and Tychy the company's total production capacity will increase to 15 million hectolitres of beer next year, meaning that KP will be able to satisfy almost half of the annual demand for beer in Poland. KP plans for its expenditure on advertising to scale proportionally with sales. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 6) E.B.