Bere Mures, the second largest local player on beer market, announced investments worth 8 million euros for the next year, intending to push the production capacity up to 1.6 million hectolitres.
"We plan to boost the annual production by 10-15%, so as to reach a volume of 2 million hectolitres by 2010 or even sooner," Virgil Mailat, general manager and chairman of the Board of Directors at Bere Mures, told ZF Transilvania.
Bere Mures estimates a production volume of 1.35 million hectolitres for this year, compared to 1.2 million in 2005. "Our plans include investments in infrastructure and logistics, in new pure culture centres and bottling lines, as well as in a new cooling plant, which will help us reach the 2 million hectolitre capacity we deem as optimal for us," added Mailat.
As the company continued expanding its production capacity, its factory based in Mures has come to take up approximately 5 ha of land at the moment.
Bere Mures derived turnover worth some 28.5 million euros (101,140,000 RON) in the first half of the year, up 33.5% against the similar period last year. The officials estimate this trend will be maintained by the end of the year, which is likely to push the turnover up to some 60 million euros (215,000,000 RON), against 45 million euros in 2005.
The company management decided last year to branch out into the hotel industry, by renovating Germisara Resort hotel in Geoagiu Bai resort, purchased from AVAS, and into the development of mineral water production facilities based in Bacaia, investments amounting to 9 million euros this year.
Bere Mures ranks sixth on the domestic beer market, with a share put at 7% in 2005. Part of its production is exported to the Republic of Moldova, the only foreign market the company operates on.
The company's product portfolio consists of the Neumarkt, Sovata and Dracula brands, as well as the Aro and Tip products, made under contract for third parties.
Bere Mures was set up in 1992, initially operating as a soft drinks bottler. The beer factory started operations in 1995 and in 1998 the company launched the PET- bottled beer.
The company is owned by six domestic private shareholders, with Virgil Mailat being one of them.
The domestic beer market, put at 600 million euros, is dominated by four multinationals' local branches: Heineken, SAB Miller, InBev and Carlsberg.
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