Czech Republic: The largest Czech brewery, Plzensky Prazdroj (PP), is to raise prices of draught beer by approx. 5 %. PP spokesman Alexej Bechtin also said that prices of bottled and canned beer will increase by 2.5 % from November.

The price hike is the result of an analysis of the situation on the Czech beer market, and is also a reaction to price growth in some commodities such as fuel and raw materials, says the spokesman to Interfax.

PP has already changed prices twice this year. The first came in March, followed by a second change in May, in reaction to a change in the VAT rate from 22 % to 19 %, according to Interfax.

Rival brewery Staropramen also plans a price hike before the end of this year. Staropramen spokeswoman Simona Krautova, however, refused to say how much the price would grow and when.

PMS Prerov, the fourth largest domestic brewery, does not intend to raise prices. Its director Antonin Chytil says the brewery has never raised prices in reaction to a price hike by rivals.

PP has a 50 % share of the Czech market. It is a unit of the SAB Miller group. The brewery employs 2,650 people in breweries in Plzen, Nosovice, and Velke Popovice and in 13 distribution centers across the country.

27 October, 2004