September 10 (SeeNews) - Ursus Breweries, the Romanian arm of UK brewer SABMiller Plc, on Monday said it will invest 50 million euro ($68.95 million) in trebling the production capacity of its plant in the city of Timisoara, western Romania.
The investment is also aimed at modernising the existing facilities of the plant, the company said in a statement.
"One of the major benefits of the modernisation will be the reduction resources consumption, such as water and energy", plant's direcor Dragos Hopulele said in the statement.
The plant was acquired by SABMiller in 2001 and currently has a weekly output of 21,000 hectolitres. It employs 200. Ursus Breweries has invested in it more than $16 million so far.
Ursus produces and sells in Romania the Ursus, Timisoreana, Ciucas, Stejar, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Pilsner Urquell brands. The company has four breweries in the country of 22 million people, which joined the EU in January.
Ursus said earlier it had an estimated market share of 24% and was the second largest brewer in Romania. The top players on the Romanian beer market also include Heineken Romania, Interbrew Romania, the local arm of Belgian Inbev, and Carlsberg's Tuborg Romania.
Beer consumption per capita was 79 litres last year in Romania, compared to a European Union average of 84 litres.
($ = 0.7251 euro)