Plzensky Prazdroj supports publicly beneficial activities in the region

Citizens select projects to support their regions

During November, inhabitants of Frydecko-Mistecka, Trinecko and Jablunkovsko selected a total of twelve projects from the CITIZEN’S CHOICE program run by the company Plzensky Prazdroj. This will lead to the allocation of grants amounting to two million crowns aimed at improving the quality of life in the relevant regions. Support from the fourth year of the CITIZEN’S CHOICE program will go to these regions due to the fact that it is host to one of the most important companies in the region – the Radegast brewery, which is part of Plzensky Prazdroj. The gala grant award ceremony for the winning projects took place 6 January 2005 in Frydek-Mistek, when the brewery and its employees welcome the new year and celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the first brew of beer.

This year, the program comprised fifty-one projects, which were judged by the Council of Representatives, made up of important figures from the towns and region.   Nineteen of the projects were selected to go on to the next round and of these citizens chose twelve winners. More than five thousand citizens took part in the voting, and they selected projects in the categories of health, culture, education and the environment in the form of voting coupons or sms messages. The absolute winner was the multimedia classroom project for the Elementary School in Trinec. The citizens’ votes decided, for example, that the Sokolik playground in Frydek-Mistek should be reconstructed, there will be an international show of folk groups and folklore groups in Mosty u Jablunkov organised by the folklore group Gorole, the hospital in Trinec is modernising the equipment for anaesthetic-resuscitation department, the Centre for mentally handicapped citizens will improve its gardens or the Beskydy chess school will organise a chess tournament for children.

Radegast brewery employees also chose their own winning project. The most votes went to the project for the hospital in Frydek-Mistek to acquire digital ultra-sonic instruments for the gynaecological-obstetric department. One of the projects was also chosen by the Council of Representatives, which supported the reconstruction of the house of culture, which is the centre of cultural life in Skalice. „This year for the first time the Citizen’s Choice program expanded to Trinecko and Jablunkovsko, and Trinecko in particular played a very active part in the program, both in the projects sent and participation in voting. We see expanding the Citizen’s Choice to other regions as one way to develop this unique program,“ said the manager of Plzensky Prazdroj company brands, Vladimir Jurina.

Projects that won the support of the public:

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• Since 1999, the Radegast brewery has formed part of the largest brewing company in the Czech Republic – Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s. Pivovar Radegast has brewed beer since 1970. It is the youngest and most modern brewery in the Czech Republic. It annually produces over two million beers with around 300 employees. It produces beer falling under the category „classical Czech lager“, and is also the producer of quality malt in its own brewery malt house. The Radegast brand includes Radegast Premium, Radegast Original and the non-alcoholic beer Radegast Birell. In recent years the brewery has invested heavily in improving qualitative parameters of production and in analysis and control procedures. As a result, Radegast has a quality which has been reflected in a number of successes both at home and abroad. In 1995,  Radegast was the first in the industry to receive the ISO 9002 quality certificate, in 1996 the International Award for quality and in 1999 the ISO 14001 environmental certificate. In 2003, the brewery retained the ISO 9001 and  ISO 14001 certificates after a comprehensive audit by the company DNV. The Radegast brewery helps maintain the beauty of the surroundings – the protected regional area of Beskydy –  with a number of unique environmental projects.
  
• Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s. is the Czech market leader and with exports to 50 countries around the world is also the biggest exporter of Czech beer. Plzensky Prazdroj’s main brands in the Czech Republic are Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, Radegast and Velkopopovicky Kozel. Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s. employs 2 694 people in its breweries in Pilsen, Nošovice, Velke Popovice and in 13 business distribution centres throughout the Republic. It also runs the Slovak Pivovar Šariš, a. s., number two on the Slovak beer market. Together, Plzensky Prazdroj and Šariš represent the most important entity in the brewing industry in Central and Eastern Europe. Plzensky Prazdroj is part of the international brewing company SABMiller plc, the second largest in the world. The SABMiller flag ship is Pilsner Urquell.
  

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