OREANDA-NEWS. Baltika Breweries, the leader in the Russian beer market, announces its performance results for the first half of 2014.

According to the Company's estimation the beer market is down 6,6% in the first half-year compared with the same period in 2013. The market was affected by weather conditions, restrictions on beer sale by place and time and macroeconomic environment, which influenced negatively consumer behavior.

Volume market share of the Company decreased by 1,2 % compared with the same period in 2013 and amounted to 37,4 %, but the value market share fell by only 0,5%. Drop in the share affected mainly modern trade channel and caused by launch of new packaging formats as well as by temporary technical difficulties with sales due to change of Baltika's business legal structure. However, in June, the volume market share has stopped falling, and the value market share even started to increase - by 0.4% compared with May.

The share of "Baltika" brand increased by 0,3% in the first half of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. The main drivers of growth are “Baltika 7” (+0,4%), “Baltika 9” (+0,5%), “Baltika Praha” (+0,4%), “Baltika 0” (+0,1%).

Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, the Company continued to invest in brand development and marketing activities. For example, sponsorship of the Continental Hockey League, the football team "Krylya Sovetov", and rock music event Tuborg Greenfest. The launch of new products - two brands of “Brewer's collection” and Seth & Riley's Garage - came into play.

The Company has made a significant breakthrough in the multipacks market - since January 2013 multipacks market in Russia has grown by 20 times. Baltika maintains its leading position in sales in this segment, occupying 86.3% of the market. For one and a half year the Company's share in this segment has increased by about 2 times.

Isaac Sheps, President of Baltika Breweries, Senior VP EE of the Carlsberg Group:

"In the face of serious challenge of the market and negative dynamics of sales Baltika has managed to achieve organic growth in operating profit and improve profitability. It was achieved through a very strict cost control, systematic work to improve the price-mix and a new schedule of investments in marketing and sales different from the investment schedule of the previous year. Also, recently there have been major changes in Baltika's top management team and in “supply chain” structure of the whole Eastern Europe region. I hope that fresh look of new team members and a clear action plan on the basis of a strategy aimed at achieving profitable growth in market share will help the Company to improve the dynamics of sales in the second half of the year."