Croatia: Heineken Adria, a unit of Dutch brewer Heineken, based in Karlova, Croatia, has raised its stake in Croatia's second-largest brewery, Karlovacka Pivovara, to 96.83% by acquiring 2.41% from minor shareholders, local media posted. Heineken Adria launched its buyout offer to minor shareholders in December 2004.

Karlovacka Pivovara is Croatia’s second largest brewery, with an 18.7% share of the domestic market, in 2003. The company sold 625,000 hl of beer in 2003. Croatia beer market totaled 3,334,000 hl of beer in 2003.

Heineken Adria is active in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro. This area is promising and very much on the move. The beer market varies from developed (Croatia) to highly difficult (Kosovo). The company manages and trains five distribution partners and takes care of the marketing investments for the whole Heineken portfolio. Heineken has an excellent image and the Heineken brand is the most intensively distributed beer in the whole region.

05 February, 2005