Carlsberg Srbija

Carlsberg Srbija

Native name	Карлсберг Србија
Type	Public limited company
Industry	Alcoholic beverage
Founded	Čelarevo, Bačka Palanka, Serbia (31 December 1998 (1998-12-31)) First founded 1892
Founder	Lazar Dunđerski
Headquarters	Bačka Palanka, Serbia
Area served	Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Key people	Gabor Bekefi (Director)
Products	Beers, soft drinks, vinegar and yeast
Production output	1,700,000 hl
Revenue	€101.82 million (2013)
Net income	-€0.79 million (2013)
Total assets	€82.55 million (2013)
Total equity	€56.73 million (2013)
Owner	Carlsberg Group (100%)
Number of employees	612
Parent	Carlsberg South East Europe
Website	www.carlsbergsrbija.rs

Carlsberg Srbija (full legal name: Carlsberg Srbija d.o.o. Čelarevo) is a Serbian beer brewery, based in Bačka Palanka, Serbia. It is majority owned by Danish Carlsberg Group since 2003 and it has around 600 employees. It is well known by its signature brand Lav pivo. According to data from 2012, Carlsberg Srbija holds 28.4% of Serbian beer market, placing it second, behind market leader Apatinska pivara.

The Belgrade-based Carlsberg South East Europe regional group oversees Carlsberg's operations in the Balkans (other than Čelarevo facility, Carlsberg owns several more breweries in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania). In addition to its market presence in Serbia, Carlsberg Srbija exports its signature brand on the markets of Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pivara Čelarevo was founded in 1892 by landowner Lazar Dunđerski. The beer it produced was called ČIB from the founding of the brewery till 1980, after the prior name of the place. Its capacity back then was about 10,000 hl a year. The brewery had its own malthouse as well, which stopped working in 1973 when first commercial malt house appeared. Until privatization, the brewery was a part of an agricultural property, therefore it was always able to provide necessary ingredients. It possessed its own hop fields covering around 100ha, where four kinds of hop were cultivated.

Significant technological development of the brewery started in the 1970s when new Steinecker fermentation hall was purchased, the capacity of which was 400,000 hl a year. It was not until 1978 that the first cylindrical conical fermentors in former Yugoslavia, made by stainless steel, were installed in open space. Two years later, a hall for two lines of filling beer into bottles was built, as well as a modern cooling system, installation for taking and filling of carbon-dioxide, line for pouring beer into barrels, new power unit, installation for chemical preparation and disinfection of water. In the eighties, new line for fruit juices started working.

In the nineties, to be more precise in 1992 a more updated, automated Steinecker fermentation hall was built in. Power unit was reconstructed, gas was introduced, Japanese compressors for ammonium cooling were purchased. Eight new fermentors made in Italy started work in 1996 which are cooled by direct vaporization of ammonium, which was the first time in Yugoslavia, and which rationalizes the expenditure of cooling energy. The four new ones were installed in 1998, and eight more in 2000. New, modern line for filling beer in glass bottles was installed in 2003.