Brewers made 2,000 employees redundant in just one year

Beer industry companies grouped under Romania’s Brewers Association have only 10 breweries left on the Romanian market at present, three less than in 2009, which employ around 4,100 people from 6,000 last year.

The facilities closed were located in Cluj (a brewery operated by Ursus), Blaj (Bergenbier) and Hațeg (Heineken). “Looking at the global trend, there is no tendency of reopening breweries, but of expanding operational capacities. We cannot expect new openings in the following period,” said Jan Derck van Karnebeek, chairman of Romania’s Brewers Association and general manager of Heineken Romania.
The number of production centres in Romania has dropped significantly in recent years after in 1994 there were 125 facilities. Companies accounted for the decision to curb their production operations by the market’s plunge in recent years. The beer market slid by 3.4% last year, after a steeper decline, of almost 13%, in 2009. “Last year’s trend was in line with initial estimates. It didn’t surprise anybody,” Jan Derck van Karnebeek added.