Beer sales dropped by 15% in September from a year ago, in line with ZF calculations based on data provided by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
Thus, after two summer months, July and August, when consumption
rose for the first time after October 2008, beer industry companies
again faced falling consumption.
After a good summer, when high temperatures and aggressive
promotion campaigns brought increases of 6-7%, in September the bad
weather and other season specific expenses were the main factors
that triggered the consumption decline.
Nevertheless, in July-September period sales registered a slight
increase, after seven quarters of declines in a row.
“I believe the falling beer consumption in September 2010 was
brought by several factors, including the VAT hike that started to
be felt more strongly during this period, the school start, which
brought expenses in families’ budget, as well as expenditures for
winter preparations. Families have less cash, this is why they are
spending less to buy this type of products,” said Shachar Shaine,
chairman of United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (URBB), the producer
of Tuborg and Carlsberg beers.