Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The leader among breweries in Poland increases capacity to 15m hectoliters, or half of the demand in the country.
Kompania Piwowarska, Poland’s biggest brewery, is going to increase the gap to its rivals. It is going to invest in its leading brands, including Tyskie, Lecha and Zubr.
“Development means not only marketing. It requires hard investment and they will be implemented in the three plants. This year, we will have spent PLN 200m (EUR 52.3m)”, Mark Bowman, KP general director said.
Thanks to the investment projects in the breweries, the capacity will grow from 12.5m to 15m hectoliters of beer. KP will be able to cover half of the annual demand in Poland amounting to nearly 31m hl. If KP manages to sell the whole increased production, it would have over 40 percent of the market.
The company’s market share would grow adversely affecting its rivals but not only: the beer market grows several percents every year.
“We expect at least 3 percent sales growth”, Danuta Gut from Browary Polskie brewery said.
“We are optimistic about the perspectives of the beer market growth in Poland. Although the consumption has risen from 33 to 79 liters per person, the EU average is about 100 liters while in the Czech Republic – 160 liters”, Mark Bowman said.
In the 2005/06 financial year ended in March, KP had PLN 570m of net income.
“We had extremely good results in the first half of the year, thanks to, among others world cap and good weather. In July we sometimes were not able to meet the demand”, Mark Bowman admitted.
Grupa Zywiec, KP’s biggest rival, is planning to win back the first place in the ranking.
“In the recent years our breweries have been thoroughly modernized and have increased their capacity, which today amount to 13m hl annually”, Eliza Panek, Grupa Zywiec spokeswoman said.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.262)