Romania: Ursus loses about 5% volume increase due to production limitations

Ursus Breweries, number two on the local beer market, last year improved its profit margins, after having increased its turnover by 30% to around 190 million euros, Ziarul Financiar published May 21.

"We estimate we have lost about 5% of our potential volume increase due to our limited production capacity, therefore we could have achieved a 35% increase in turnover," Dieter Schulze, chairman of Ursus Breweries told ZF. "Ursus sales increased by 23% during the last fiscal year (April 2006 - March 2007) against the previous fiscal year, based on a 42% increase in volumes seen in the last half of the fiscal year. The Romanian market had one of the biggest growth rates in Central and Eastern Europe registering a 24% increase, outrun only by Russia, according to information published by SABMiller.

By comparison, SABMiller's sales increased by 7% in Hungary, 13% in Poland and by less than 2% in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. Schulze specified that the profit margins have improved over the last year, but did not wish to specify the net profit posted by the company on the local market.