KYIV. March 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Carlsberg Ukraine’s plants were loaded by 70% in 2016, Director General Yevhen Shevchenko said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“The loading last year was around 70%. This means that 30% of facilities of our three breweries in Lviv, Kyiv and Zaporizhia are idle,” he said.
Shevchenko said that this is linked to the reduction of the beer market in Ukraine.
“Production is falling. Yes, our market share grew by 0.3 percentage points in 2016 compared to the previous year, while the market fell by 7%. Loading could have been worse. In 2015, it was around 65%. We improved it thanks to cider and kvass. We see that the beer market is narrowing. We are trying to load production facilities of other market segments,” he said.
In addition, he hopes that after the indexation of the beer excise duty by inflation in 2016 (12%) the market would stop falling.
“It [market] is being stabilized at the level of the previous year. Thanks to the expected growth of non-beer brands the situation with loading could even improve. With loading of 70% there are no plans to shut down production,” he said.
Carlsberg Ukraine said that the company has three clients in China. Ukrainian beer is shipped there. Negotiations are being held with two more clients.
“Last year we shipped 30% of all our exported goods to China. We hope to increase the share thanks to attraction of new partners. We have been supplying [beer] to China for two years. Last year the shipments stirred up: 95% of beer bought in China is Lvivske 1715,” Shevchenko said.
The key exports markets for Carlsberg Ukraine is Moldova, Vietnam, India, Brazil and Canada.
“I can say that Africa has not yet been studied well,” he said.
According to the company, investment of Carlsberg Ukraine in 2016 grew by 21.8%, to UAH 245.4 million. The money were mainly invested into environment-friendly technologies, energy saving and retail equipment for selling beer.
“In 2017, we are looking for a breakthrough. Investment will be significantly larger than in 2016,” he said.
He said that the company does not plan to expand the imported products line. However, the company announced the launch of several new products both on the beer and non-beer markets.
According to AC Nielsen, the share of Carlsberg Ukraine of the cider market in kind was 59%, the kvass market – 43.9% and the beer market – 29.9%.
Carlsberg Ukraine is part of Carlsberg Group, one of the leading brewing groups in the world, whose products are sold in more than 150 countries.
