The United Kingdom’s brewing force, SABMiller, will soon start producing its leading international beer brand Pilsner Urquell in Russia, reports in the Russian press revealed on January 20. According to the reports, Kaluga brewery, owned by SAMiller, the second world largest brewer, has already finished mounting equipment worth US$2m for new production lines. Kaluga brewery outputs other licensed beer brands like Staropramen, Miller, Holsten. However, SABMiller hasn’t revealed any time scales on when a launch might happen. The company also didn’t make public the volume of production planned and the amount of investment. Competitors said that SABMiller has chosen the right time to make the investment, as now the marked of licensed beer in Russia is growing much faster than the beer market as a whole.

At present, Pilsner Urquell is imported from the Czech Republic. The brand holds 6% of all imported beer market and is number four after Bavaria, Budwiser Budvar and Staropramen. Now Pilsner Urquell is produced in the Czech Republic and Poland.

23 January, 2004