E-Malt.com News article: 2436

Russia: Dutch brewing force, Heineken, plans to build a new brewery in Ekaterinburg, the Urals, Kommersant-Daily reported on April 1. According to the source, Dutch brewer failed buying an existing Russian brewery “so the only choice is constructing its own plant in Sverdlovsk region”. Sverdlovsk regional governor Eduard Rossel, who received a letter from Heineken’s leadership with the offer on building a brewery in the region, revealed the news. The cost of the new plant will come to around US$ 40-50 million. The news was also confirmed by Viktor Pyatko, the general director of Heineken Brewery in Russia.

Meanwhile analysts were not surprised with the news. Last year Heineken held active negotiations with the largest Russian beer makers on the subject of purchasing. According to Federation Group, the former distributor of Heineken in Russia, Dutch brewer made offers to Krasny Vostok, Stepan Razin and TEPKO. To all appearance, Heineken failed to come to any agreement and decided to build its own brewery, analysts said.

It was estimated that with the announced investment of US$ 40-50 million Heineked will be able to build a brewery with a production capacity of 100 million litres (for comparison the local (Sverdlovsk) leader Patra brewery produced 69 million litres of beer in 2003) and will held 10% of Ekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk beer market. Ekaterinburg takes the third place in Russia regarding per capita beer consumption after St. Petersburg and Moscow. Russia’s largest breweries, Sun Interbrew and Baltika, do not currently have production facilities in the area. Moreover, the new plant will allow Heineken to save some million US$.

According to analysts the next region of Heineken’s investments in Russia is Siberia or Far East, where the companies like Baltika, PIT, Ochakovo are activating or will be activating.

Heineken the third largest brewery in the world was the last that invested in Russian beer market. Early 2002 the Dutch company purchased Bravo beer maker based in St. Petersburg for US$ 400 million buying also its strategic brand Bochkaryov. In a year the company was renamed in Heineken Brewery and they started to brew its leading brand Heineken.


02 April, 2004