The Dutch brewing giant Heineken plans to control 15 % of the Russian beer market, newspaper Vedomosti reported in a statement on September 17. Now Heineken holds below 6% of that market. "Russia is a very big country, and in order to survive on this market you have to be a big company. It means our market share should be at least 15 %. This goal could be reached in two ways, either by increasing our own production or by acquiring competitors," the president of Heineken in Russia Rolan Pierme said in an interview to Vedomosti. “However, at the moment, Russian companies are not very interested in selling their businesses,” Rolan Pierme added.

Pierme said the company considers ZAO Ochakovo and OAO Krasny Vostok breweries as the most attractive acquisitions. Ochakovo and Krasny Vostok hold 6% and 5% shares of the Russian beer market respectively. If no agreement on acquisition is reached, "we will have to build our own brewery in Russia, and construction will have to start next year," he said. Any such plan could begin as early as 2004 with an investment of about US$50 million, Rolan Pierme added.

Heineken owns one brewery in the country, St. Petersburg"s Bravo brewery, which it bought in April 2002 for about $330 million.

24 September, 2003