PET sales drive SABMiller’s volumes in Romania up 23 pct in Q4 2012

Newsroom 22/01/2013 | 11:25

Ursus Breweries, the Romanian subsidiary of SABMiller, has sold 23 percent more beer in the last three months of 2012 which represent the group’s third quarter ended 31 December 2012.

The increase in Romania was “driven by the continued strong performance of the new PET pack of economy brand Ciucas,” reads the company’s report.

In Romania SABMiller operates production facilities in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Buzau and Brasov. It also owns local producer Bere Azuga.

SABMiller’s lager volumes in Europe were up 1 percent on an organic basis, with some beer markets “impacted by depressed consumer confidence”. For example volumes in Poland were down 2 percent while Czech domestic volumes dropped 11 percent.

The London-headquartered company saw global sales go up by 2 percent in the last three months of last year compared to the same period of 2011.

Romanians drank 8.7 million hectoliters of beer in the first semester of 2012, up 4.5 percent y-o-y according to the Brewers of Romania Association.

Simona Bazavan