The leading Czech producer and exporter of beer announced its financial results for the fiscal year

Plzensky Prazdroj announced today its financial results for the fiscal year ending on 31 March 2007.

Highlights:

• Revenues increased by 6.4% to CZK 14.42 billion
• Net profit after taxation for the accounting period increased by 2.6%, reaching CZK 3.46 billion
• Export sales increased by 15%

Results are influenced by significant capital investment into company infrastructure, focused on supporting export growth.

Plzensky Prazdroj is a significant contributor to the Czech economy, having paid a total of CZK 4.7 billion in taxes during the past fiscal year, leading to the Company being again among the top 20 tax payers in the Czech Republic.

Largely through the growth in international sales, as well as through packaging innovations, the company increased its consumption of raw materials from Czech suppliers with, for example, barley purchases being up by 10% and orders on Czech packaging suppliers amounting to CZK 0,5 billion.

In the fiscal year ending on 31 March 2007, Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s. confirmed its position as the leading Czech producer and exporter of beer. Foreign beer sales, through export and licensed production, increased by 15 % year-on-year, whereas Domestic sales volume increased by 1 %, in line with the market.

The Czech Republic is a mature market and Plzensky Prazdroj focuses domestically on its more premium brands, which grew satisfactorily over the year. That growth, however, was countered by a decline in sales of its lower priced brands.  In addition, the company focuses on supporting sales of Czech beer abroad and also on ensuring ongoing improvements in the image, presentation and beer consumption experiences to meet the demands of  the Czech beer culture.

Exports of Plzensky Prazdroj increased by 90,000 hl year-to-year (+ 12%). Pilsner Urquell with export growth of 13 % again confirmed the position of the major premium of Plzensky Prazdroj’s portfolio and the role of international flagship brand of the parent company SABMiller. The main foreign markets are traditionally Germany (where Pilsner Urquell became the largest imported beer brand), USA, and Slovakia. Large growth was reached in export to Scandinavian countries (+24 %).

Mike Short, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s., emphasised in his comment to these financial results: “The past fiscal year in Plzensky Prazdroj was marked mainly by extensive investments, exceeding CZK 3.5 billion. In order to secure the expected growth of export of the Pilsner Urquell brand, we completed major expansion projects in the Pilsen brewery. We expanded our brewing and cellars capacity and introduced advanced packaging technology to ensure that the beer quality from our brewhouse and cellars is preserved throughout the onerous transportation to our remote export markets.”

“I’m also delighted that the American Beverage Testing Institute granted Pilsner Urquell the historically highest ever score awarded to a lager of the Pilsner type in its evaluation of the quality of a wide range of prestigious beers during a highly publicised taste evaluation.  This result supports the evidence of Pilsner Urquell’s growing popularity as demonstrated by the growing international demand for Pilsner beer from our brewery.”

At the same time, Plzensky Prazdroj promotes indirectly the Czech beer in the world – by investments into the marketing of the Pilsner Urquell brand, in the form of education programmes. The best “advertising” for Czech beer in the world is clearly the 130 million of bottles and cans of high quality beer with clear statement of the Czech origin that Plzensky Prazdroj exported in the previous year. All that undoubtedly helps the popularity of Czech beer growing abroad and indirectly also helps other Czech breweries with export increases.

The sales of the brands of Plzensky Prazdroj in the domestic market grew by 68,000 hl to 8.1 million hl. Gambrinus maintained the position of the most popular Czech beer and thanks to the innovation of the bottles and crates, the sales of bottled Gambrinus increased by more than 10 %. The domestic sales were led especially by Pilsner Urquell (+4 %) and Velkopopovicky Kozel (+10 %). In connection to the change of the life style of consumers that goes hand in hand with their expectation of guaranteed quality, the non-alcoholic beer Radegast Birell continues with a double-digit growth (+48%) that it achieved already in previous years. In the conclusion of the fiscal year 2007, also Plzensky Prazdroj enriched the Czech beer market with two new specials – semi-dark lager Master 13° and dark lager Master 18°.

In spring 2007, the company completed the replacement of packaging of all its brands, where also Radegast, Radegast Birell, and Velkopopovicky Kozel started to use the lightened GOLD bottles. New crates and multipacks are also gradually introduced with these brands. The Pilsner Urquell brand modernised its packaging in the autumn of 2006 by introducing new (also lightened) bottles, cans, and crates. The lighter bottles in combination with the improvement of the logistical planning decrease the number of travelled kilometres annually by 31 % and will save 3.5 million litres of diesel.

The long-term intent of development of the Czech beer culture was supported by Plzensky Prazdroj in Czech and foreign education programmes about production and treatment of Czech beer, with emphasis on quality not only in production, but especially in sales (new 5hl tanks for restaurants, 15l kegs, programmes of sanitation and certification). The quality certificates for well treated beer were obtained by further approximately 100 restaurants and beerhouses and their total number already reached 800. In the Czech Republic, Plzensky Prazdroj trained 349 beer experts. Foreign educational programmes by Pilsner brewmasters about the history, production, and treatment of beer had covered over 4,000 persons abroad. The guided tours of breweries and the Brewing Museum were visited by 170 thousand people, of which half were foreigners. 

Contact:
Vladimir Jurina
724 617 886
Corporate Relations Department

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• With the total sales of more than 10.7 million hectolitres in the calendar year 2006 and export to more than 50 countries of the entire world, Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s., is the leading beer producer in the region and the largest exporter of Czech beer. The main brands of Plzensky Prazdroj in the Czech Republic are Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, Radegast, and Velkopopovicky Kozel.
• Plzensky Prazdroj, a. s., is a member of the global group SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers with brewing interests or distribution agreements in over 60 countries across six continents. Pilsner Urquell is the international flagship of the portfolio of SABMiller brands.
• As well as Pilsner Urquell, the group’s brands include the premium international beers Miller Genuine Draft and Peroni Nastro Azzurro, as well as an exceptional range of market leading local brands. Outside the USA, SABMiller plc is also one of the largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products in the world.

Pilsen