Austrian brewer, Oesterreichische Brau- Beteiligungs AG (BBAG), has reported that its turnover for the first six months was down 3.1 % at €544.1 million, while EBIT remained unchanged at €40.4 million after the strong second quarter performance offset a decline in the first three months of the year. Pre-tax profit rose by 11.5 % up to €35.0 million.

BBAG, which is in the process of merging its beer unit with Dutch brewer Heineken, said its beer sales for the half were down 2.7 % to €474.8 million, despite a 2.6 % increase in volumes to 6.5 million hl helped by the hot summer weather. The highest growth was achieved in the export business, where sales rose by 38.9 %, mainly attributed to the development of the licence production of Gösser in Russia.

There were also strong performances from other markets, helped by price reductions: sales in Poland grew 8.5 per cent – double the growth of the overall market – while in Romania and the Czech Republic volumes rose 6.1 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively.

Domestic sales volumes were flat, while in Hungary, price competition and cheap canned beer imports from Germany led to a 2.1 per cent decline in sales.

The company has already received approval for its link up with Heineken from the European Commission, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Romania, and the authorities in Poland and Slovakia are expected to green light the deal in the fourth quarter of this year. Heineken and BBAG are to merge their brewing activities in Central Europe into one unit, called Brau Union. The combined business will have beer sales of around 26 million hl.

02 September, 2003