好東西 - 電子商務

Czech beer lovers can drink no more

DPA , PRAGUE
Monday, Aug 29, 2005,Page 12
"We have reached the maximum per capita
consumption -- 160 liters per capita, or 16 million hectoliters a year."
Jan
Vesely, spokesman for the Czech Beer and Malt Association
The country that
proudly wears the world's beer-consumption crown is pouring less at
neighborhood pubs and exporting more of its precious brews abroad.
It's a
globalization strategy that Czech breweries are being forced to adopt because
the country's domestic drinkers have simply filled their mugs of famous
"pivo" to the limit.
"We have reached the maximum per capita consumption --
160 liters per capita, or 16 million hectoliters a year," said Jan Vesely,
spokesman for the Czech Beer and Malt Association. "We can't expect any
increase in consumption or revenues from the domestic market."
That maximum
rate has led the world for years, with Czechs edging out even the Germans and
Irish in per capita quaffing.
No this country of just 10 million supports
about 90 breweries and still imports brands from as far as Mexico.
But soon
Czechs may lose their legendary consumption crown. Reasons include an ageing
population, falling birth rate, changing diets and a growing taste for wine,
especially among young adults.
These days a stagnant domestic market is the
best the Czechs can expect. "Thank God it's flat, because in other countries
[beer consumption] is declining," Vesely said.
Actually, the per capita
consumption figures are skewed by tourism, since the millions of thirsty
tourists who visit Prague and Czech spa towns every year contribute heartily
to brewery sales.
"It's the phenomenon of tourism that helps us keep up the
domestic consumption," Vesely admitted.
So breweries have responded by
cranking up exports.
Last year about 7 percent of the 18 million hectoliters
brewed in the Czech Republic was shipped abroad -- a 60 percent increase in
exports from the 1999 level. The main destinations were Germany, Slovakia,
Britain, the US and Sweden.
This year's exports are expected to climb another
12 percent, topping 3 million hectoliters for the first time and boosting the
country's total brewery output to the highest level since 1990 -- the
celebratory year after communism fell in the 1989 Velvet Revolution.

Budejovicky Budvar is among the brewers setting the pace, with nearly half of
its beer now being shipped abroad.
Budvar the state-owned company locked in a
legal battle for years with the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch, over
the product names Budweiser and Bud.
Although the American beer is not sold
in the Czech Republic, the Czech company recently got around the legal hurdle
by renaming a product for the US market "Czechvar" -- and grabbing a new
export niche.
The largest Czech brewer and exporter is Plzensky Prazdoj,
owned by the conglomerate SABMiller. Between 2003 and last year, Prazdoj's
domestic sales were flat but exports rose 13 percent. That trend is expected
to continue.
Small are looking abroad, too. The Lobkowicz company in the
village of Vysoky Chlumec, for example, is now exporting most of its annual
output of 100,000 hectoliters, mainly to Germany.
"We're seeing a lot of
changes, even among the small brewers," Vesely said.
In addition, Vesely
noted that several Czech brewers are making or plan to make beer abroad under
foreign licensing agreements, although that output is not counted with Czech
exports.
Lobkowicz, for example, said it's interested in finding an Asian
licensee, while larger Czech firms have already gotten footholds in Poland,
Russia and Slovakia.
Proud Czech breweries generally attribute their export
success to quality and flavor, but it's clear that they're also being driven
by the flat domestic market.

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