As an economy heavily reliant on agricultural exports, Moldova went through a rough patch in 2009, along with the rest of the world, due to the global financial crisis which also hit Moldova’s main export markets. Moldova’s GDP is estimated to have declined by 9.0% in 2009 and the unemployment rate almost doubled.

The challenging economic conditions put significant pressure on beer sales as well, and accordingly, EBI’s sales volume in Moldova declined in 2009 over the previous year, in line with the market. However, despite the declining trend in the last two years, the Moldovan beer market achieved a 20.5% CAGR between 1999-2009 and is expected to achieve a further 5.6% CAGR in the next five years (Canadean Global Beer Trends 2009). In this promising market, EBI is the market leader with a market share of 69% in 2009 (MEMRB YTD December 2009).

While our flagship brand “Chisinau” is the highest selling beer brand in the country, a new brand extension, “Chisinau Draft Mild,” was launched in March 2009. Chisinau’s leadership position was reinforced further by the contribution of the redesigned “Chisinau Blonda,” which was launched in July. In addition, our international “Efes” brand is the leading super premium brand in Moldova, which was successfully relaunched with its newly designed packaging in 2009.

With its brands “Stary Melnik,” “Sokol” and “Vitanta,” Efes Moldova also has a very strong presence in the premium segment. EBI’s brand “Beliy Medved” has achieved the top position in the economy segment after its launch in mid-2008.