URBB (United Romanian Breweries Bereprod) announced that its sales went up by 7 percent in the first 9 months of 2010 against the same period of 2009. Beer sales went up by 4 percent and soft drinks sales by 2 percent. The month with the highest sales was August, when beer sales hiked by 19 percent while soft drinks sales went up by 13 percent.

“In the first nine months of the year, Tuborg, Carlsberg, Skol and Guinness have developed their market share on their respective markets and Granini increased by 4 percent”, said Shachar Shaine, president of URBB & Carlsrom Beverage (pictured).

According to company data, the imported brands segment is the only one that registered growth this year. In 2010 consumers were less attracted by super premium and premium brands while mainstream and local brands were the least affected by drops. URBB estimates that it will reach a 10.5 percent share of the local beer market by yearend.  As for this winter, the recently launched Tuborg Christmas Brew is expected to boost sales by about 3-5 percent against 2009.

URBB is present on the Romanian beer market with the premium brands Tuborg, Carlsberg, Skol, Holsten, Guinness and Kilkenny, on the soft drink market with the Granini brand and more recently on the bottled mineral water market with the Bilbor brand which was launched this June.