“I believe the market will increase 4-5 percent next year, but this depends on many factors, and we must first examine Romania’s macroeconomic results at the end of the year and how hot the coming summer will be,” said Stephan Maria Weber, President of Ursus Breweries, quoted by Mediafax. Weber is expecting a some 6 percent advance this year of the domestic beer market, compared to 2007. Ursus Breweries, subsidiary of the SABMiller group, has four factories in Romania, with a total annual production capacity of 6.3 million hectoliters.
The company has a 25.4 percent share of the market in terms of volume, after Heineken Romania, according to a study by MEMRB market research company carried out in the first eight months of the year. Last year’s domestic beer market exceeded €1 billion. Main producers are Heineken, Ursus Breweries, InBev, URBB and European Drinks.
According to Ursus officials, the sale of PET-packaged beer will increase this year by several percentage points, to 47 percent, while the volume of canned beer will advance to 12 percent from this year’s 10 percent. Bottled beer will make up 38 percent of the market in 2008, down from 44 percent year-on-year. Ursus officials also forecast that the per capita beer consumption could rise to 111 liters in 2013 from a present 90-95 liters.
