Europe

History

SABMiller was among the early movers into the post-communist growth markets of Europe starting in the mid-1990s.  We are a proven consolidator in the region and now have domestic operations in nine countries representing a combined population of over 350 million.  The majority of our European businesses are located in Eastern Europe: Kompania Piwowarska in Poland, Plzensky Prazdroj in Czech Republic, Transmark in Russia, Ursus Breweries in Romania, Dreher Breweries in Hungary, and Pivovar Saris in Slovakia.  We also own Compania Cervecera de Canaries in the Canary Islands and Birra Peroni in Italy.  In the United Kingdom, Miller Brands UK, launched in 2005, markets, sells and distributes our international premium beer brands.  Additionally, we export beer across Europe with volumes doubling over the past five years. 
 
Eastern Europe has seen solid growth in national economies, disposable incomes and consumer spending, all of which should continue into the future.  This has benefited the beer industry, as has a shift in consumers’ beverage alcohol preferences from local spirits towards beer. The result has been lager industry growth far surpassing global averages and per capita consumption trends increasing closer to the average level of northwest Europe. 

Current business

Europe lager sales volume grew to 36 mhl in F06, with an average organic growth rate of over 5%.  SABMiller Europe is the #1 or #2 player within each of its national markets with the exception of Russia, where we compete solely in the premium segment given underlying market dynamics there.  We continue to generate market share growth in most countries.  Among our bigger markets, in Poland, we have the top 3 brands in the market: Tyskie, Zubr and Lech.  In the Czech Republic, our market share has grown to nearly 50%, led by our brands Gambrinus, Pilsner Urquell and Kozel.  In Russia, we have three of the top four international licensed brands:  Kozel, Holsten, and MGD.  The European business is enjoying initial success in its international roll out of Peroni Nastro Azzurro. 

Future strategy

Our key strategy to achieve and sustain market leadership is to build full brand portfolios across sales channels, focusing on local and international premium brands and continually refreshing our core mainstream brands.  In addition we believe in constant innovation across products, categories, packaging, marketing and point of purchase merchandising to capture value through differentiation.   Complementary strategies include channel development and advocacy through trade marketing, managing our routes to market and superior execution at the point of purchase.  Finally, we are increasingly leveraging our scale regionally and globally through processes and procurement to enhance efficiency.  In addition to targeting continued volume, market share and profit growth in our domestic market operations, SABMiller Europe’s export business is an important component of this strategy and will focus on countries including Germany, Turkey, Scandinavia and Spain.

* Plato Logic