The upward trend of the beer market started last year, so beer consumption reached 80 liters per capita at the end of 2015, compared with 74 liters at the end of 2014. This was the first growth after two years of decline.
Besides an increase in sales, Bergenbier also cut its losses, after having stopped posting net profit in 2009. The brewer made RON16.8 million net losses in the first half, 50% of the loss in the year-ago period.
In all, the brewer posted about RON500 million losses in the past seven years, in an industry where the major brewers with a few exceptions were in the black even during the crisis. Bergenbier and European Food, a company of brothers Ioan and Viorel Micula, are the only large brewers to have been in the red last year.
Bergenbier’s losses started to shrink in 2014. The brewer got two capital inflows, RON430 million in all, from its parent company Molson Coors.
Bergenbier has only one brewery in Romania, in Ploiesti, after having decided to close the brewery in Blaj in 2010. Its brands include Bergenbier, Staropramen, Stella Artois, Beck’s and Noroc and it ranks third on the market after Ursus Breweries and Heineken Romania by revenue.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)