CCHBC acquires Croatian water company

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company has completed the acquisition of the Croatian mineral water Company Gotalka. CCHBC said that the transaction was part of the joint acquisition strategy with The Coca-Cola Company.

The acquisition involves a production facility at Budinina and the company's mineral water brand Bistra.

Doros Constantinou, managing director of CCHBC, commented: "The Bistra brand has significant potential and will enable our business in Croatia to expand into the promising water segment there. It is a small acquisition with no material impact on the group's financial results, and is very much in line with our strategy to broaden the selection of non-alcoholic beverages that we offer to our consumers."

In recent months CCHBC has been making rapid in-roads into the eastern European market place, particularly with regards the rapidly-growing mineral water market in the 10 EU accession countries. In October last year the company announced the completion of the Polish bottled water company, Multivita. At the end of 2002 it also purchased Romanian bottled water company, Dorna.

Coca-Cola HBC is one of the world's largest bottlers of products of The Coca-Cola Company and has operations in 26 countries serving a population of more than 500 million people. CCHBC shares are listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.