INTERVIEW - InBev's Bulgarian Unit To Develop Premium Segment Brands

“We have enough installed capacity […] We will invest in quality,” Kamenitza country manager Anatoliy Popov told SeeNews on the sidelines of a presentation of a new variety of the Kamenitza brand.

“We created Kamenitza Lev to meet the higher requirements of modern Bulgarians,” Popov said and added that the Kamenitza brand topped Bulgaria's beer market with a 19% share in the first five months of 2008.

The brewery produces lager, dark and non-alcoholic beers under the Kamenitza brand. Its product portfolio also includes Astika, Burgasko, Pleven, Slavena, Beck’s, Staropramen and Stella Artois brands and imported Beck’s Green Lemon, Belle Vue, Duvel, Hoegaarden and Leffe.

Kamenitza brewery ranked second on the Bulgarian beer market with 1.525 million hectolitres sold in 2007. Kamenitza's closest competitors are Zagorka brewery, owned by Dutch Heineken, and Danish Carlsberg.

Kamenitza Lev will be launched in a 0.5 litre embossed glass bottle, which would be offered to both stores and restaurants, Popov said and added that a 1.5-litre polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle will follow.

“Our goal is to grow faster than the market, which will increase by 2.0% to 3.0% this year after the strong rise in 2007,” he added.

Beer sales in Bulgaria grew by 3.0 % to 5.6 million hectolitres in the 12 months until June 2008 thanks to favorable weather conditions. This is based on data from the Union of Bulgarian Brewers and estimation of volumes sold by Ledenika&MM's, which is not member of the union. Ledenika&MM's has an estimated share of 7.0% share of the local beer market.

“The market also depends on the purchasing power of the population, and if inflation rate rises faster than the income of the people, the market's growth also slows down”, Popov said.

($=0.6361 euro)