A new workshop for filtering beer was officially opened at the Zagorka brewery on Tuesday.
Located at the brewery in Stara Zagora (central Bulgaria), for the first time in Bulgaria, beer will be filtered in order to guarantee purity, constant high quality and eliminate yeast particles that cause the beer to go darker with time.
After the opening of the new facility, the company also received a quality control certificate ISO 9002. Zagorka is the only brewery in Central and Eastern Europe which holds the ISO 9002 certificate.
Greek offshore company Brewinvest owns an 80 per cent share of the Zagorka Brewery.
In 1994, the company – in which Germany’s Heineken and the Greek Hellenic Bottling Company participate – paid $21.7 million for the brewery. In 1997, Brewinvest bought another Bulgarian brewery Ariana AD (Sofia) and has invested in it some 37 million euros so far.
German producers provided the machines and equipment for the new workshop at Zagorka brewery. With this latest investment of 2.5 million euros, the amount of the owner’s total investment in the factory since its privatisation rose to 60 million euros.
“Beer lovers will not find the beer different after the filtering,” said Dimitar Aleksiev, executive director of Zagorka AD, at the opening. “The taste will stay absolutely the same.” According to Aleksiev, who is also chairman of the Brewers’ Union, the four Brewinvest brands – Zagorka, Ariana, Amstel and Stolichno Pivo – comprised 25.1 per cent of the beer consumption in the country for 2000. With this figure, Brewinvest took second place after the leader, Belgium Interbrew.
Zagorka and Ariana breweries sold 1.03 million hectolitres of beer on the Bulgarian market in 2000, with which they posted a 25 per cent increase in sales compared to 1999.
The increase in sales in 2000 was the result of the excellent marketing strategy of the company, which focused on balanced supply of strong brands, said Aleksiev. The second success factor Aleksiev pointed to was the huge investments for technical renovation of the breweries’ facilities.
Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov was one of the guests at the opening ceremony in Stara Zagora.
“Regardless of the outcome of the elections, I could firmly state that all future Bulgarian governments will continue to stimulate foreign investments,” he said. “Because this is one of the major stimuli for the development of the Bulgarian economy.”
Stoyanov added that Bulgaria’s small and medium-sized enterprises were in no way of less importance, however. “Foreign investors need a country with well-structured SMEs, but the small and medium-sized businesses also need foreign investors because the latter create new jobs and bring valuable expertise.”
Located at the brewery in Stara Zagora (central Bulgaria), for the first time in Bulgaria, beer will be filtered in order to guarantee purity, constant high quality and eliminate yeast particles that cause the beer to go darker with time.
After the opening of the new facility, the company also received a quality control certificate ISO 9002. Zagorka is the only brewery in Central and Eastern Europe which holds the ISO 9002 certificate.
Greek offshore company Brewinvest owns an 80 per cent share of the Zagorka Brewery.
In 1994, the company – in which Germany’s Heineken and the Greek Hellenic Bottling Company participate – paid $21.7 million for the brewery. In 1997, Brewinvest bought another Bulgarian brewery Ariana AD (Sofia) and has invested in it some 37 million euros so far.
German producers provided the machines and equipment for the new workshop at Zagorka brewery. With this latest investment of 2.5 million euros, the amount of the owner’s total investment in the factory since its privatisation rose to 60 million euros.
“Beer lovers will not find the beer different after the filtering,” said Dimitar Aleksiev, executive director of Zagorka AD, at the opening. “The taste will stay absolutely the same.” According to Aleksiev, who is also chairman of the Brewers’ Union, the four Brewinvest brands – Zagorka, Ariana, Amstel and Stolichno Pivo – comprised 25.1 per cent of the beer consumption in the country for 2000. With this figure, Brewinvest took second place after the leader, Belgium Interbrew.
Zagorka and Ariana breweries sold 1.03 million hectolitres of beer on the Bulgarian market in 2000, with which they posted a 25 per cent increase in sales compared to 1999.
The increase in sales in 2000 was the result of the excellent marketing strategy of the company, which focused on balanced supply of strong brands, said Aleksiev. The second success factor Aleksiev pointed to was the huge investments for technical renovation of the breweries’ facilities.
Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov was one of the guests at the opening ceremony in Stara Zagora.
“Regardless of the outcome of the elections, I could firmly state that all future Bulgarian governments will continue to stimulate foreign investments,” he said. “Because this is one of the major stimuli for the development of the Bulgarian economy.”
Stoyanov added that Bulgaria’s small and medium-sized enterprises were in no way of less importance, however. “Foreign investors need a country with well-structured SMEs, but the small and medium-sized businesses also need foreign investors because the latter create new jobs and bring valuable expertise.”
