A survey on Estonians' beer consumption habits shows that half of women who drink beer prefer Saku, while A.Le Coq has a narrow lead among men. Of women who drink beer, 50 percent prefer Saku and 37 percent A.Le Coq. Among men polled, 46 percent said A.Le Coq was their preferred brand, compared with 43 percent who named Saku, according to the Turu-Uuringute AS pollster that carried out the survey. A representative from the pollster said the survey revealed a new trend in Estonia's beer culture, namely: "It seems that as the level of education and incomes grow, weekly consumption of beer becomes part of the lifestyle." Tarmo Noop, CEO of the A.Le Coq Tartu Olletehas brewery that commissioned the survey, said the outcome clearly speaks against the assumption that beer-drinkers are mostly very young people. "The survey shows that of 18 to 19-year-olds, only 14 percent drink beer, while 40 percent of beer-drinkers are from 30 's 39 years old."
Sanitas, Lithuania's largest drug maker, took over the management of Poland's Jelfa after a new supervisory board of the Polish pharmaceutical company was appointed on June 2. Sanitas will have six representatives on the nine-strong supervisory board, while the remaining three members will represent the interests of Jelfa's employees. Sanitas, which is controlled by the Lithuanian investment company Invalda and foreign investors, completed the acquisition of an 84.56 percent stake in Jelfa in mid-April, raising its holding in the Polish firm to 94.55 percent. Sanitas paid 466.9 million litas (135.3 million euros) for the 84.5 percent stake, representing the single largest investment by a Lithuanian company in Poland.
