European Drinks to boost exports

The European Drinks Group intends to reduce its number of brands in 2005 and boost exports, according to Ioan Micula, the company chairman. “We have no plans to tap into new sectors, on the contrary we want to consolidate those we already operate in and even reduce the number of brands,” explained Ioan Micula. European Drinks is the largest domestic company in the foods industry, with 500 million euros of turnover a year and dozens of brands over a range of markets, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, chips, tomato paste and beer. “Given our large sales volume, it is more efficient for us to focus on standard products. For instance, we want to reduce the number of choices for certain products,” he added. European Drinks exports foods to Canada, US, and the Arab countries, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Russia and Sweden. “Our plan is to boost exports this year, mainly to EU countries,” said the European Drinks chairman. ZF