E-Malt.com News article: Romania: AB InBev’s former beer unit changes name

InBev Romania has officially adopted the name of its most popular beer brand, Bergenbier, Financiarul reported on March, 3.

The maker of the Bergenbier, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Lowenbrau and Noroc has renamed itself but will keep its current organisational structure, business structure and brand portfolio.

Bergenbier is the first InBev brand released in Romania, and at the same time the engine for the company’s business that generates almost half of the company’s sales volume and value each year.

The decision to change the name of the company came after InBev pulled out of the Anheuser-Busch InBev group in December 2009 as the group sold out all its business operations in nine Central and Eastern European countries – Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Slovakia – to CVC Capital Partners, one of the world’s leading private equity investment advisory fund.

Bergenbier will be an integrant part of the newly created StarBev group that comprises all the beer making and retail operations acquired by CVC Capital Partners in last December’s deal. ‘We have decided to call ourselves Bergenbier in a natural step toward acknowledging the fame that the company has won over the past 15 years.

No matter how the legal entity is called, we are known for Bergenbier, the brand we established in 1995, that matches the tastes and the soul of Romanians. Romania is one of the main markets where we are operating as part of the StarBev group,’ says Bergenbier Chairman Mihai Ghyka.

Bergenbier was a brand specially developed for the Romanian beer market and it was the first mainstream brand to win nationwide distribution.

The same brand is said to have revolutionised the market for plastic bottled beer following the release in 2003 of its Bergenbier Q-Pack concept. The maker of Bergenbier entered Romania in 1994 and it is currently the owner of two breweries – in Ploiesti and Blaj – and a national retail network.

Bergenbier says it will continue to make and promote the Bergenbier, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Lowenbrau and Notroc brands and import Belgian beer Leffe and Hoegaarden.



03 March, 2010