Efes International : Higher beer prices will create pressure on demand in 2011

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The brewery group Efes International (EBI) is one of the largest independent brewing groups. The Turkish company is controlled from its group headquarters in Amsterdam. With its extensive procurement policy, Efes International developed into both one of the leading and one of the largest privately owned beer groups.

With twenty-five million hectolitres, Efes is one of the big players on the international beer market already. To be able to brew these quantities, a record volume of 152,000 tons of malt was processed in the past year. The group focuses its activity on Eastern Europe, mainly on Russia, a country with extremely high beer consumption where Efes has achieved a considerable market share of ten percent in spite of the virtually uncountable numbers of competitors.

Founded in 1996, the company is very young as beer companies go. In spite of this, is already active in a number of profitable participations and branches in other leading countries of the former Soviet Union, namely in Kazakhstan, Moldavia und Georgia. Other countries are controlled from the Amsterdam site, where the company also has its state-of-the-art group headquarters.

“Sales volume in Turkey beer operations increased by 8.4% in 4Q2010” Alejandro Jimenez, CEO.

Current CEO Alejandro Jimenez finally assumed control of Efes International in 2007. One of his first actions was concentrating the company on its core business of beer, initiating the sale of two soft drink brands to the U.S. Coca Cola group. The current end of the acquisition tour of Efes is the acquisition of JSC Lomisi, the leading beer manufacturer of Georgia.

Thanks to this comprehensive acquisition policy, Efes International has now become one of the largest and leading privately owned beer companies of the world. The twenty-five million hectolitres mentioned above prove the position of Efes International in the group of international, globally acting companies. Today, Efes Anadolu, the parent company, holds a share of 100 percent in EBI.

“Higher beer prices will create pressure on demand in 2011”

It is deliberate strategy, rather than coincidence, that experienced international beverage specialist Alejandro Jimenez controls the history of a group striving for international status. Jimenez, the CEO from Costa Rica, started his career with Coca Cola group after achieving his Bachelor Degree at the University Of Texas in 1973.

Alejandro Jimenez – As international as the Efes brand

There, he held a number of top management positions from 1981 to 1991 before taking over the position as CEO of Panamco Mexico. Panamco Mexico, the largest and most important subsidiary of PANAMCO group, was already the largest beverage provider in Latin America, and the second-largest in the world. In 2001, Jimenez rose to the parent company’s management board. He became CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of EBI group in 2007.

Jimenez filled his management board with international managers of various nationalities. It is particularly noticeable that he made Stefan Gimpel-Henning, former technology manager at Kulmbacher Brauerei, the technical director of Efes International in Russia in 2009. In his new position, Gimpel-Henning is responsible for production of and technology for about twelve million hectolitres, thus almost tripling his range of responsibility as compared to his former German one.

With the market and brand power mentioned in the countries named and its international manpower, Efes International will be able to expand further. The future will show whether the Turkish group will be able to remain out of the eyes of brewing giants, since increasing expansion turns Efes into an interesting candidate for a merger with one of the true big players on the global beer market.