Czech Republic: Prazdroj to invest CZK 4 billion by 2011
Plzensky Prazdroj, the largest Czech brewery, will invest CZK 4 billion (US$176.150 million) in 2006-2011, mainly in its plant in Plzen, capital investment manager Adam Gunn told CTK June 23.
Prazdroj will spend 60-70 percent of the sum in Plzen, where it brews its top-selling brands, Gambrinus and Radegast. The rest will be used to buy tanks for fermentation and ageing for the Radegast and Velke Popovice breweries.
Prazdroj will draw solely on its own funds to finance the investment, said Gunn.
Prazdroj launched the operation of ten new fermentation tanks in Plzen June 23 and expanded the Plzen brewing house by a second line to produce wort.
In October, the Prazdroj is looking to launch a new bottling plant worth CZK 1 billion, the biggest investment in the Plzen brewery since 1989.
Prazdroj, a unit of the SABMiller group, raised sales by 4 percent year-on-year to almost CZK 13.6 billion in the financial year from April 2005 to end of March 2006.
Net profit grew to almost CZK 3.4 billion from less than CZK 3 billion. Prazdroj will spend CZK 2 billion on dividends this year, flat from 2005.
Plzensky Prazdroj sold 10.2 million hectolitres of beer in the last financial year, up 2.5 percent year-on-year. Sales abroad rose by 29 percent to 2.2 million hectolitres.
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