Russia: Carlsberg to put less beer in bottles and reduce packaging size

Carlsberg, the biggest brewer in Russia, plans to put less beer in bottles and reduce the size of some products in order to avoid increasing prices in Russia, where the beer market is shrinking, RT.com reported on August 21.

The initiative applies to half of Carlsberg’s Russian production and is intended to stabilize its business in Russia, which is facing food inflation and high taxes.

It means that “we don’t have to increase prices as much, because then we can keep the same price points but lower volumes a little,” Bloomberg quotes Joergen Buhl Rasmussen, the Carlsberg’s CEO, in a telephone interview made after the Danish brewer cut its full-year outlook because of shrinking demand in Russia.

To boost Russian sales the company will also introduce new products such as Seth & Riley’s Garage, an alcoholic lemon drink, and sponsor a hockey league.

A third of Carlsberg’s profit comes from the Russian Baltika brand. Sales in Russia are likely to fall in the second half of the year, as distributors are cutting orders. This is “due to the recent macro events, the consumer sentiment, and the outlook for some of the economies in Eastern Europe are becoming increasingly challenging and uncertain,” the company explained in the statement.

In the first half of 2014, Russian beer sales declined by 7 percent.

22 August, 2014