Ursus Breweries
Ursus Breweries, a subsidiary of Asahi Breweries Europe Ltd., is the beer market leader in Romania. The company is based in Bucharest and owns 3 breweries in Timișoara, Buzău and Brașov as well as a craft mini-brewery in Cluj-Napoca and employs around 1,400 people.[2] Ursus Breweries’ brands are: Ursus, Timișoreana, Ciucaș, Grolsch, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Redd’s, Stejar, Azuga, Pilsner Urquell, St. Stefanus and cider brand Kingswood.
Ursus is one of the best-selling beers in Romania and is the leader of the premium beer segment
Timisoreana is the most loved and best selling beer in Romania and, the leader of the mainstream beer segment. Ciucas is leading the economy segment and is the 2nd best selling beer in Romania after Timisoreana.
The company has been owned by SABMiller since 1996 until March 2017 when Ursus Breweries became part of Asahi Breweries Europe Ltd. Following the acqusition of SABMiller group by the AB InBev group, The European Commission’s approval of the combination between SABMiller and AB InBev was conditioned on a commitment from AB InBev to sell SABMiller’s businesses in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). On 31st March 2017 Asahi completed the purchase of SABMiller’s former Central and Eastern European businesses, including Ursus Breweries.
Asahi Breweries Europe Ltd. (ABEL) has operations in 5 countries in Europe, owns 11 breweries , employ around 7.800 people and produce over 33 mil. Hl of beer per year.
The history of Ursus Breweries in Romania begins in 1996 when South African Breweries purchased Vulturul Buzau. A year later, South African Breweries acquired Pitber Pitesti and URSUS S.A Cluj-Napoca. In 2001, URSUS S.A bought the majority stake of Timisoreana Beer S.A. Since 2002, URSUS S.A and Timisoreana SA merged into a single integrated company, named Romania Beer Company S.A. In 2004, SABMiller plc (formerly named South African Breweries) acquired the majority stake of Aurora Brasov, a company that merged in the same year with Romania Beer Company S.A. A year later, in 2005, the new name of SABMiller`s operations in Romania becomes Ursus Breweries.
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Wikipedia