Western European brewers thrive in growing Romanian beer sector
continuing to drive growth in the Romanian beer market, as all of
the country's major producers reported significantly higher sales
for 2003, culminating in a 12 per cent increase in total sales for
the year.
Increasingly aggressive sales and marketing strategies led to the emergence of a strong core sector of brands, and the disappearance of a number of less popular brands.
The Heineken-owned Brau Union company, which is responsible for brands such as Golden Brau, Gosser, Silva and Ciuc, still remains the market leader, although stiff competition from the Interbrew, SABMiller and the Danish Carlsberg Brewery groups means that they have all encroached on its position for the third year in a row.
Belgium's Interbrew overtook SABMiller as the leading foreign player, while Carlsberg continued to bark at their heels, maintaining a 20 per cent yearly growth rate which saw it achieve a 7 per cent share of the market.
The fifth most successful player on the market was Bere Mure, which has managed to successively double its share of the beer market since 2001 due to the successful introduction of PET packaged beer.
Meanwhile, the Micula Brothers' group, which only entered the Romanian beer market in the second half of 2003, had already attained 1.8 per cent market share by the end of last year - a figure that is expected to grow to around 5 or 6 per cent by the end of 2004, the company claims.
Brau Union managed to achieve its number one position in 2000 after it bought out the Romanian-owned Brewery Holdings group. This gave it a market leading position of 36 per cent of the market. However, since then competition from the other leading brewers has seen that market share decline to a current figure of 32.3 per cent, despite an increase in sales this year of 7.6 per cent.
