Schulze leaves SABMiller on a high note

After four years at the helm of SABMiller’s Romanian operations Dieter Schulze can boast among his achievements a 20m dollar deal that propelled the company to second position on the market, a profit that increased 15 times in 4 years, as well as a 100m-euro investment programme approved by shareholders.
From November 1, Schulze will take over the management of Poland’s biggest brewer, which derives almost five times higher turnover than Ursus, in a country where beer consumption per capita is lower than in Romania (66 litres in 2005, compared with 70 litres in Romania in the same year).
Schulze believes he is ready for a new challenge, which the Ursus chairman thinks is inevitable after working for a multinational with an annual turnover that exceeds 18bn dollars. “There have been many achievements over the last four years, but the most important one was undoubtedly the moment URSUS Breweries became the leader of the Romanian beer market in terms of value (…),” says Schulze. Speaking about his experience at Ursus, Schulze simply says he encountered: “The biggest number of professional challenges and of achievements”.
One of the biggest challenges was the takeover of Aurora Brasov brewery, which at the time held 16% of the beer market. In May 2004, SABMiller acquired the majority stake in Aurora Brasov (one of the market’s top performers) for 20m dollars. The deal pushed SABMiller into second position on the domestic market, with an over 20% market share. The brewer also supplemented its portfolio by adding PET packaged products. The sales trend allowed Schulze to present an investment plan worth 45-55m euros to shareholders, just a few months after the finalisation of another investment project worth around 40m euros to expand production capacities in the Buzau plant. In the wake of the Buzau investment, SABMiller approved investments worth 50m euros to expand the Timisoara plant. One of the projects Dieter Schulze will pass over to the new Ursus chairman is the creation of a distribution company, which will secure higher coverage particularly in smaller cities.
From November 1, Stephan Maria Weber, the former sales, distribution and trade marketing manager for Europe with SABMiller group will replace Schulze.