SABMiller Deal Will Be Key To CEE Strategy

International beer conglomerate SABMiller has announced that it has agreed to buy the outstanding 28.1% stake in Poland's leading brewer, Kompania Piwowarska, increasing its majority position in its biggest European revenue earner. Indeed, with a rising market share of 43% in the 38mn strong country, CFW expects Piwowarska to remain a crucial component of SABMiller's Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) strategy for the foreseeable future. Although Poland's beer industry has been winded by the cutback in non-essential food and drink consumption inflicted by the economic crisis (GDP is expected to slide by 2.69% in 2009), BMI's Food and Drinks team currently forecast beer sales to increase by 34.3% through to 2013, reaching US$5.84bn.

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