The Turkish company Efes Breweries International (EBI) plans to acquire a large Serbian brewer Pancevo in May this year. “The new owners will start the activity with the Russian brand “Stary melnik”, Russian newspaper “Vedomosti” reported. Russia is the fifth world largest beer maker. However, Russian brands are not sold abroad except “Tolstiak”, which is output in Ukraine by SUN Interbrew and “Stary melnik”, which is output in Kazakhstan by EBI. The output of “Stary melnik” in Serbia will be the first attempt to produce the Russian brand out of CIS.

Pancevo is situated 20 km beside Belgrade. The company produces about 50 million litres of beer per year and controls 10% of Serbian beer market. After acquiring Pancevo EBI plans to invest some more US$10 million in equipment and will start the output of “Stary melnik” in August-September.

18 April, 2003