Baltic Beverages to invest 50 mln eur in new Uzbekistan brewery

AFX News Limited June 9 Baltic Beverages Holding AB (BBH), the joint venture company held equally between Scottish & Newcastle PLC and Carlsberg AS, is to invest 50 mln eur in a new brewery in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The brewery will be operational by the spring of 2007, and will have an initial capacity of 1 mln hectolitres per annum, with the ability to increase production subject to demand. BBH will team up with a local partner in Uzbekistan, Sarbast Plus, and will hold a share of 75.1 pct. Uzbekistan has a population of 27 mln, a growing economy and increasing levels of beer consumption. The domestic beer market has developed positively over the past couple of years and BBH believes that it has the potential to grow strongly in the future.