Local beer producer United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (URBB) will invest EUR 1.2 million in making unpasteurized beer under the Skol brand, reports local Wall-street.ro.

This is its first major investment this year. The company started working on this project at the end of 2015. The investment will generate a 6% increase in the production capacity or 150,000 hectoliters.

The company has hired 50 people since the beginning of this year for this project. URBB current team includes more than 750 employees.

“We will produce annually between 50,000 and 100,000 hectoliters of unpasteurized Skol beer,” said Shachar Shaine, URBB president.

He gave the example of the Carlsberg beer brand, which in Poland managed to have great results on the unpasteurized beer segment. “In five years, they've managed to increase the sales five times for that brand. The unfiltered beer sales account there for 20% of the market of 40 million hectoliters. I see the same potential for the Romanian market,” Shachar Shaine told Wall-street.ro.

URBB is the second local producer that starts making unpasteurized beer, after Ursus launched unpasteurized beer under the Timisoreana brand earlier this year. The unpasteurized Skol will be officially launched on the market in the next two weeks.

URBB, which produces the Tuborg and Carlsberg brands, aims to double its investments this year and exceed the EUR 120-130 million sales threshold.

editor@romania-insider.com