Greece’s Mythos Brewery, a subsidiary of Denmark’s Carlsberg, is aiming at boosting exports this year by 40 percent year-on-year in a bid to offset falling volume sales at home arising from lower consumption and a drop in tourism arrivals.
Mythos Brewery CEO Soren Brinck said that beer volume sales dipped by around eight percent last year, versus 2009 figures, with lower demand coming from bars and restaurants and other retail spots, such as supermarkets and corner stores.
Despite depressed market conditions, the Thessaloniki-based company managed to boost revenues by some 7.5 percent in 2010, while also widening it market share in the beer market to 13 percent in 2010 from nine percent in the previous year.
Mythos Brewery, Greece’s second largest, has a production and bottling plant in the northern Greek city with three production lines and a bottling capacity of 11 million crates per year.
Looking ahead, market conditions are seen remaining difficult in 2011 but the pace of falling consumption is expected to slow to about three to five percent.
However, Mythos Brewery expects to wind up the year with double digit growth.
According to Brinck, the market is seen starting to recover after April, on the back of an expected boost in tourism.
It is not by chance that the company continues to see good prospects in Greece’s beer market as it sticks to a 50-million-euro investment program scheduled to run for the next five years. In addition to this, the company intends to increase permanent staff numbers this year by 25 percent.
On the export front, Mythos Brewery intends to meet its eleven percent export growth goal by targetting Australia, US, Germany and England.
Exports currently account for ten percent of the company’s total revenues.