Bere Mures branches out

The Romanian shareholders in Bere Mures, the number six brewer on the beer market, have announced they are preparing to re-launch their soft drinks business and to invest in still mineral water. The company”s sales went up nearly 10% in the first half, compared with last year. “We will resume production of soft drinks at the end of August, at which time we will also launch a still water brand since demand (for such products) is rising on the market and because traditional networks that supply water to the population are not operating within normal parameters,” says Virgil Mailat, chairman and one of the six shareholders in Bere Mures. The initial investment in still water will be for 500,000 euros, while bottling will be performed using bottling lines previously used for beer, after the company invested two million euros in a new PET-bottling line for beer with a capacity of 20,000 bottles/hour. ZF