DUSHANBE, July 29, 2008, Asia-Plus – Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) will invest 15 million euro to develop a brewery in Uzbekistan, Yevgeny Shevchenko, general director of the Sarbast Plus LLC, a joint venture in which BBH is the majority owner.
The money will go to modernize the production lines in order to improve the quality of product and to enable production of other beers.
The joint venture will begin production of Baltika Classic No. 3 and Baltika Strong No. 9 before the end of the year, said Shevchenko.
The number of Baltic brands made at the brewery may be expanded, and other beer brands belonging to BBH may be added.
“We are also planning to introduce a number of innovative products on the Uzbek market, which will make it possible to raise the quality of product in the retail network,” he said.
Sarbast Plus – with technical support from Carlsberg – has launched DraughtMaster, a new draft beer system for hotel-restaurant-cafe sales in Uzbekistan. Over 1,000 such systems will be installed at retail establishments through Uzbekistan before the end of the year.
BBH has already invested roughly 60 million euro in the Uzbek brewery.
Sarbast Plus signed a licensing agreement with Baltika Breweries (RTS: PKBA) in May 2008. The company is planning to produce about 15 million liters of beer per year in Uzbekistan under the license.
