Quenne Anne bottling to stop in Romania

Pernod Ricard Romania, the local branch of the world number two player on the spirits market, has said it will no longer bottle the Quenne Anne whisky brand in Romania. Quenne Anne is its only locally made brand. “The decline in customs duties and increase in whisky consumption led us to this decision. It is no longer profitable to import Quenne Anne in containers and bottle it here. We will now be importing it in bottles from Scotland,” said Corneliu Valsan, general manager of Pernod Ricard Romania. Valsan explained that back in 1997, when the company decided to bottle Quenne Anne on the Romanian market, the customs duties on imported spirits were 90%, though this has since gone down to 60%. “Customs duties are expected to fall to 35% in early 2006 and integration into the European Union will eliminate customs duties for importers. In this situation, it would be financially pointless to bottle here,” added Valsan. Quenne Anne was bottled in Sibiu by International Producers Company (IPCO). The brand sold 50,000 litres on the Romanian market last year. The Romanian branch of Pernod Ricard posted over 40% growth in sales in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2004. Company officials did not disclose the value of the sales. ZF