Zywiec is still number one in the battle of the breweries

Grupa Zywiec, the biggest producer of beer, controlled by Heineken of Holland, is maintaining its leading position on the domestic beer market. In the first quarter of 2002 it sold 1.63 million hectoliters of beer produced in its Zywiec, Lezajsk, Elbrewery and Warka breweries, which is 11.7% more than in the first quarter of last year. This is the best result among all the breweries. In second place is Kompania Piwowarska, with the Lech and Tychy breweries, which are owned by SAB, a South African company. They managed to sell 1.48 million hectoliters of beer which, compared to last year means they are still falling further behind the market leader. Both companies can boast that they have 63% of the domestic market between them. "Grupa Zywiec is concentrating on its cheap brand, Tatra, that's why they're winning. Kompania Piwowarska doesn't have such a brand and cannot win the price war. But this can change if they buy the Lublin-based brewery Perla," said Bogna Sikorska, an analyst in CDM Pekao. Two other major brewery groups, Carlsberg Okocim and Brau Union respectively sold, 700,000 and 264,000 hectoliters of beer. So far this year sector results have not been good. (Puls Biznesu, p. 3) A.D.