After a promising start of the year, the summer months dragged consumption down and sales dropped 11% in June-August. Summer is the best part of the year for brewers, accounting for 40% of their sales, but the rain upset their plans in 2013, because this season it rained mostly at the time when people would normally be out in the town drinking beer (on weekends and in the afternoon).
“Due to a still low purchasing power of Romanian consumers, a difficult summer and an increase in taxation, the reservations I had expressed at the beginning of the year about the sales trend in 2013 turned out to be true, unfortunately,” said Constantin Bratu, general manager of the Brewers of Romania Association.
Bratu added he only had data for the first eight months of the year, when beer consumption fell 8% (the association cites Nielsen data) and under the circumstances, his estimates point to a full-year decline of the market. Beer sales fell in 2009 and 2010, after a peak in 2008, were flat in 2011 and rose in 2012.
Best-selling beer in Romania is the PET bottled beer, which accounts for a little more than 50% of total consumption, beer sold in cans accounts for 14%, draught beer sales stand at 4% and the beer bottled in glass containers accounts for the rest.
The leading local brewers are Ursus, Heineken, Bergenbier, URBB and Romaqua.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)