Baltika's a winner in Germany

Russia's largest brewer, Baltika Brewery, has said that it expects beer exports to Germany this year to far exceed the 1.25 million litres that it exported to the country in 2002.

The company said it has already exported over 1 million litres to Germany in the first seven months of this year. Sales have been helped along by the fact that since the middle of last year the brewer has managed its exports to Germany through a fully owned subsidiary, Baltika Deutschland.

An exports boost is necessary for Baltika, which experienced a 10 per cent sales decline in the first quarter of the year, twice the rate of the market decline, Brunswick UBS analysts said.Baltika has also been looking for new export markets and has launched exports of nonalcoholic beer to Iran. It also started to sell its lager in the UK pubs owned by its shareholder Scottish & Newcastle.

Meanwhile, it has also been increasing the scale of its domestic market. In May of this year, the brewer started to manufacture Carlsberg beer at its St Petersburg brewery facility, under a licensing with the Danish brewer.

An increase in exports is also extremely good for Baltika's financial revenues, a Reuters report stated, as Baltika sells a pint of its beer for about €3 in Germany and the UK, which compares favourably with the €0.50 charged for the same measure in Russia.

Baltic Beverages, which owns Balitka​ is a joint venture of Scottish & Newcastle and Carlsberg.