Coca-Cola cooperates with brewer

RIGA - Latvia's Coca-Cola subsidiary, Coca-Cola Dzerieni, signed a cooperation agreement Feb. 21 with the brewery Cesu Alus. The purpose of the agreement is to develop an efficient distribution and delivery system that will strengthen and promote the growth of both companies' businesses in Latvia.

Cesu Alus, based in the town of Cesis in northeastern Latvia, produces cider, light alcoholic cocktails and beer. It is the oldest brewery in northern Europe, dating back to 1590.

Seventy-five percent of shares in the company are held by Finland's A.Le Coq group, which is owned by OLVI Oy, the third largest beer maker in Finland.

Cesu Alus plans to close the year without a loss and triple its sales compared to 2000, said the company's director, Edgars Stelmahers.

The brewery expects to increase its sales due to extra output from a new production facility to be opened in May or June, as well as to benefit from its cooperation with Coca Cola.

In 1999, Cesu Alus was 121,000 lats ($196,000) in the red on a net turnover of 970,000 lats. The company has not yet released its financial results for 2000.

According to figures provided by the Latvian Brewers' Union, in 2000 Cesu Alus sold 2.4 million liters of beer, down 13 percent from 1999. Cesu Alus sales made up 2.6 percent of the total beer sales of breweries that are members of the union. Coca-Cola Dzerieni was established in Latvia on Dec. 29, 1992, and is the official distributor of Coca-Cola products in Latvia.

Dzintars Jakans, head of the excise goods administration of the Latvian Revenue Service, said that the services' licensing commission had issued a license to Coca-Cola Dzerieni for the distribution of alcoholic drinks.