Lomza and Perla breweries plan to join forces in battle for local markets

The two local breweries Perla and Lomza, which together control 4% of the beer market, may merge in the future. They also have a personal connection in Wojciech Szczepaniak, the chairman of Perla, who is also managing Lomza. This situation permits common purchases, optimum use of production potential and fighting competition on local markets. Hubert Gierowski, the main investor in both breweries, wants to complete their restructuring so that they can compete with foreign beer producers. Even though he gets offers for shares in Perla and Lomza, he is unlikely to sell them as the breweries' business plans show that the merger could increase their profits, but only if sales of each exceed 500-600,000 hl of beer a year. Gierowski is planning to increase sales by over 20% in five months. Beer market analysts say that the role of local breweries producing strong beer brands will become more and more important on the market and that the big beer concerns will try to take them over. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B4) A.D.