Major brewers no longer downplay PET

European Drink”s boom on the PET-bottled beer segment last year, which also continued into the first few months of 2005, is having a strong impact on the market and on other players, who are now planning to increase their volumes in this category. The rainy weather this year has also limited sales in outdoor bars, where the 0.5 litre bottle predominates. United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (URBB), the bottler of Tuborg and Carlsberg through Carlsrom Beverage, is the last of the top four to enter the PET segment. It launched Skol on the market, a brand belonging to the Brazilian brewer Ambev (which merged with Interbrew last year to form the world”s leading brewer, Inbev). The Skol rights for Europe are held by Carlsberg, which owns 16% in URBB. URBB officials had said repeatedly on previous occasions that they had no interest in PET-bottled beer, but in the end they were won over by the spectacular growth of this segment. ZF