Dutch Heineken expands to Belarus buying Syabar

By Margarita Snegireva. Syabar Brewing Co., the owner of Belarus's second-largest beer brand, was bought out by Heineken NV. Belarusian market is considered to expand more rapidly than markets in western Europe.

Photo: Dutch Heineken expands to Belarus buying Syabar

The purchase will add to profit next year, Amsterdam-based Heineken said today in a statement. It's buying the beermaker's Cypriot parent company from a group led by Detroit Investments Ltd. ( Cyprus ) and from the World Bank's International Finance Corp. arm.

Heineken, whose brands include Poland's Zywiec, sells more than 40 percent of its beer in central and eastern Europe. A 12 percent gain in the amount of beer sold in the region in the first half helped the brewer, the largest in the Netherlands, to raise its forecast for this year's profit in July. Sales climbed 1 percent in western Europe on the same basis

Heineken International is a Dutch brewing company, founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. As of 2006, Heineken owns over 115 breweries in more than 65 countries and employs approximately 57,557 people. It brews and sells more than 170 international premium, regional, local and specialty beers, including Cruzcampo, Tiger, Żywiec, Starobrno, Zagorka, Birra Moretti, Ochota, Murphy’s, Star and of course Heineken Pilsener. Heineken claims that the original Heineken recipe has not changed since the beer was first produced nearly 150 years ago.

With an annual beer production of 121.8 million hectoliters, Heineken ranks as the fourth largest brewery in the world after InBev, SABMiller, and Anheuser-Busch. Heineken's Dutch breweries are located in Zoeterwoude and 's-Hertogenbosh. The original brewery in Amsterdam, closed in 1988, is preserved as a museum called Heineken Experience.