Raising a glass to sports and shorts

In the first six months of 2006 Poland's beer industry sold 15.3 million hectolitres, a 5.5-percent increase in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year.

"This year is a very good continuation of 2005," the president of the Union of Brewing Industry Employers, (ZPPP) Paweł Sudoł, said. He credits a number of factors for this year's growth - the good economic situation, the weather, the World Cup, as well as changing trends in alcohol consumption. "Beer has become trendy - young people are going for the beverages with low alcohol content," Sudoł explained.

Still, Sudoł was very cautious when it came to year-end predictions. "Let things continue the way they are going," he said, adding that year-on-year growth of three percent would be satisfactory.

"There is a good chance that we will surpass 30 million hectoliters again this year," Sudoł predicts. In 2005 the industry sold 30.26 million hectoliters of beer, topping the 30-million mark for the first time in its history.

Key industry

The brewing industry is a serious contributor to the state budget. In 2005 the budget received zł.2.6 billion from the excise taxes on beer alone, while after the first half of this year zł.1.2 billion went to the state.

"We have to remember that VAT income from the beer industry would at least double that number," Dorota Gut from ZPPP said. The importance of the industry to the economy can be further illustrated by its influence on other sectors. "One workplace in the brewing industry generates one new workplace in retail trade, two jobs in the delivery sector and even up to 12 new workplaces in the catering business," Gut added.

Kompania Piwowarska (KP) remains the market leader with over 37 percent of the market. In the first half of 2006 it sold 5.8 million hectoliters of beer, and its growth rate in that period - at 11.5 percent - was twice that of the market. The company's general director, Mark Bowman, credited the growth to improved overall reach, as well as good growth in his company's main brands, particularly World Cup-fever driven Tyskie. The brand was very conspicuous during the World Cup as it was the Polish national team's sponsor. But despite the successful marketing offensive, Bowman remains humble. "We have a healthy paranoia - we are very happy that we are doing well, but at the same time are worried about the competition," Bowman said.

Refreshing results

The second player on the market, Grupa Żywiec, won't publish its results before September, but the company's corporate director, Krzysztof Rut, disclosed that compared to previous years, sales growth this year finally outpaced the market average.

On the other hand, Carlsberg Polska, which has been the fastest growing of the three main players, can't consider H1 2006 one of its best. In Q2 it sold 1.2 million hectoliters of beer - 140,000 hectoliters less than in 2005, and its market share fell by 0.2 percent to 14.4 percent. "This was due to the fact that we decided to move out of the private-labels market [producing for supermarket chains] and because we had a large unsold stock in the distribution chain," Carlsberg Polska's president, Marcin Piróg, said. However, he underlined that the company's strategic goals remain unchanged. "In four to five years we want to have a 20-percent market share," he said. July's results, when the company sold over nine percent more beer than in the same month of 2005, indicate that the slump may have been temporary.