September the 23rd, 2022 - The Zagreb Brewery (Zagrebacka pivovara) recently presented its brand new Zapresic logistics centre, into which they've invested close to 18 million kuna.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Zagreb Brewery presented its impressive recent investment in a new logistics centre, which will also double up as a distribution and commercial centre in Zapresic near the City of Zagreb.

The investment that was presented in the form of the new Zapresic logistics centre is a continuation of this well known company's wider investment cycle in the expansion of its overall production and storage capacities.

"Our new investment cycle marked this very important year for us, in which we celebrate 130 years of existence," said the President of the Management Board of the Zagreb Brewery, Miroslav Holjevac.

This year's investment cycle, he said, is important because it increases competitiveness on the market and the quality of customer service. He also noted that back in June this year, an investment of an even higher 64 million kuna was presented in the form of a technologically advanced line for filling and packing cans in their production facility in Zagreb.

The investment in this new Zapresic logisitcs centre has worked to successfully expand the company's logistics areas and covered storage areas as well as a truck terminal, which will ensure a safer and easier flow of traffic.

Additional storage areas necessary due to the increased production capacity and new product range have also been secured. 5,400 square metres of storage halls and an additional 9,000 square metres of external logistics areas were constructed, including a brand new truck terminal.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

November the 26th, 2021 - The well known Zagreb Brewery (Zagrebacka pivovara) is set to start producing one of the world's most popular beer brands as of next year, which is sure to delight many.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, Diageo, the world's leading premium beverage company, producer of Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Guinness, has announced a partnership with Zagreb Brewery, a member of the Molson Coors Beverage Company, to distribute Diago's beer portfolio across the Republic of Croatia starting on January the 1st next year.

For Diageo, the strategic partnership with Molson Coors will help the Guinness and Kilkenny brands to market even more rapidly with the strong presence of the Zagreb Brewery's distribution channels here in Croatia.

"We're pleased to be able to announce our new partnership with Molson Coors in Eastern Europe. We're going to continue to develop our marketing strategy and we believe that this collaboration will help us significantly increase the availability of our beer brands. We look forward to the opportunities and growth we can achieve together with Molson Coors in Croatia with our brands and future innovations,'' said Michael Holm, the Diageo CEO for Eastern Europe.

Sergey Yeskov, CEO of Molson Coors Beverage Company for Central and Eastern Europe, said they want to expand their portfolio to allow them to offer premium brands. They also want to find partners with the same values ​​as Molson Coors, who, as he pointed out, are “rooted in quality, workmanship and heritage”.

“We're excited and proud that we're going to be able to distribute these two global Diage brand icons here in Croatia. We will continue to invest in products that are more than premium and use our distribution network to bring Guinness and Kilkenny, which perfectly complement our great portfolio, closer to beer lovers across the country,'' said Yeskov.

Guinness is a very well known dark Irish stout created at the Arthur Guinness Brewery in St. Louis. James’s Gate, in Dublin back in 1759. It is one of the world's most successful alcohol brands, produced in almost 50 countries and available in more than 120 countries of the world. Kilkenny is also an Irish beer produced by Guinness, which originates from Kilkenny in Ireland.

For more, check out our business section.

November the 7th, 2021 - The former director of the much loved Zagreb Brewery, Sergey Yeskov, is set to spread his wings and become the director of the Molson Coors Beverage company. With this professional move, the ex Zagreb Brewery director, originally from Ukraine, is branching out from Croatia to Europe.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, former Zagreb Brewery director Sergey Yeskov is set to become the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Molson Coors Beverage, the owner of the aforementioned Croatian brewery, for the whole of Europe. With this, Yeskov is stepping down from his position as director of Molson Coors for operations in Central and Eastern Europe and spreading further. The current president and CEO for Europe - Simon Cox, will retire on January the 1st, 2022, the Zagreb Brewery announced.

"Sergey's comprehensive experience, gained around the world in various positions, will be a great contribution not only to our European team, but also to the overall global business," said Gavin Hattersley, President and CEO of Molson Coors, adding that ''under Sergey's leadership, Molson Coors will continue to advance the company for the benefit of employees and business in Europe."

Ukrainian by birth, Yeskov has built an enviable career in this British brewery, which is also among the world's largest - he was the president and CEO of Molson Coors International in America, overseeing business operations in India, Africa, Latin America and Japan. He was also the General Manager of Sales and Sales at Molson Coors Canada, and he is also remembered right here in Croatia, because he ran Molson Coors here and in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was the President of the Management Board of the Croatian beer leader, the producer of Ozujsko and a number of other brands (and representatives of other labels from the Molson Coors portfolio), for a full decade, from 2006 to October 2016.

On the other hand, his predecessor at the helm of the company in Europe - the Brit Simon Cox, has worked in the beer industry for more than 30 years, he's otherwise a master brewer by profession and was with Molson Coors for 16 years, rising in the company's hierarchy in Europe and achieving excellent business results, for which Chief Hattersley praised him:

"Simon has brought our European business to its current position. We're grateful for everything he's done for us to realise our achievements so far and become what we are today,'' said Hattersley.

The Zagreb Brewery also noted that Molson Coors in Europe, which includes them, did very well in the first nine months of this year - by September the 30th, the level of income from the third quarter of the pre-pandemic year of 2019 had been reached, and growth in investment in markets on the continent had also begun.

For more, check out our business section.

October the 25th, 2021 - The much loved and very popular Zagreb Brewery and K Pivovara (Brewery) which is under its auspices, has created even more variation in what was declared the world's best beer in its category back in 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last year, the beer that was declared the best in the world in its category - Grif Pale Ale, produced by K Pivovara from Zagreb, has been recently being producted in a brand new form - a 0.33 litre can. Along with the Pale Ale style in the new packaging, Oatmeal Stout is also now available in that form in stores. From the very beginning, these beers have been being produced in solely half-litre glass bottles.

From this microbrewery, otherwise under the auspices of the Zagreb Brewery, which is the Croatian market leader, they explained why they decided on heading in the direction of cans as opposed to more bottles.

“A small 0.33 litre can is practical and light and holds the ideal amount of beer for many consumers. At Grif, we approach the production of master beer uncompromisingly, and every drop of our skill poured into these new cans will confirm that fact once again,'' noted the manager for excellence of customers and consumers at K Pivovara, Dominik Palcic.

Cans of Griff's very own trump cards are on sale across numerous retail chains within Croatia, including Konzum, Interspar, Djelo and Vrutak, and the company is announcing its entry into a number of others soon.

These beers have been present here on the Croatian, otherwise very much thriving craft brewing scene since back in 2017, and Grif proved its mastery and quality not only here but also abroad.

Just last year, at the World Beer Awards held in the British capital of London, among 2,200 beers from 50 countries around the world, their Pale Ale won the title of World's Best Pale Golden Ale based on blind tasting.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

May the 8th, 2021 - The Zagreb Brewery (Zagrebacka Pivovara) has released another of its creations onto the Croatian drinks market - meet Hidra UP.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the well known Zagreb Brewery has launched yet another brand new non-alcoholic drink onto the Croatian drinks market, Hidra UP. It is a refreshing drink made from orange, lemon and lime fruit juice and barley malt with very few calories, which quickly restores a person's consumed energy reserves. In addition to natural ingredients, Hidrs UP contains minerals (Mg) and vitamins (C, B6, B5, B3) that help reduce fatigue and exhaustion.

Given the ever-increasing pace of life and daily responsibilities, people rushing around trying to juggle the varying stresses of life often don't have enough time to ensure that they have a varied diet and the necessary rest. In these situations, they use every opportunity to make up for lost time. For business people, students, travellers, professional drivers and everyone else who lives the fast pace of life, the new kid on the block, or more specifically the Croatian drinks market restores their lost energy.

The Zagreb Brewery, which has become more and more well known on both the Croatian and the international scenes of late and is the leading brewery on the Croatian drinks market, continuously monitors trends and launches new products depending on the wishes and needs of consumers. After the launch of the isotonic drink Hidra ISO, the company is once again making a breakthrough on the Croatian drinks market with this new addition.

"After isotonic drinks found their consumers in the sports community, we wanted to offer a wider audience something new, something that will make their day easier and aid them in maintaining the necessary concentration. We believe that our audience will recognise the quality of this drink and that Hidra UP will soon become a favourite additional source of energy for all who need it in the dynamic pace of life,'' said Ana Sebih Pinjuh, the Zagreb Brewery's marketing director.

For more on Croatian drinks and everything else created in this country, follow Made in Croatia.

September 14, 2020 – Zagreb craft ale specialists The Garden Brewery celebrate the sale of their 3,000,000th can with a competition to win a year's supply of brilliant beer

Summer hasn't quite gone as planned for anyone in 2020. Some of The Garden Brewery team expected to be spending much of the season on the coast in Tisno. Set up in part by the team that ran The Garden Festival, for them, it should have been another summer of music, dancing, and welcoming thousands of international visitors to the many festivals they host on their site near Murter island. But, all of the festivals were cancelled.

Right at the start of the Coronavirus outbreak, the Garden Tisno festivals faced the unknown and some tough decisions. By mutual agreement with the site, it was decided to put the health and safety of visitors and staff first and cancel all of 2020's events. But, The Garden Brewery is no longer reliant on festival-goers to buy their beer. Just four years into their beer-making operations in Žitnjak, Zagreb, the beer is now exported to 26 countries on three continents. In the past week, they have sold their 3 millionth can of beer.

Despite the hit of Coronavirus, their business has actually grown by 40% in the past year, necessitating the expansion of their production facility in Zagreb (they are installing a new canning line to aid capacity). They currently have over 20 full-time staff at The Garden Brewery – mostly Croatian - and have so far made over 80 different kinds of beer. In 2019 the brewery was named 'Best EU brewery' by Beer 52, a UK-based home delivery subscription service for craft beers. It's the largest of its kind in the world and over 400, 000 public votes were cast in the competition.

To celebrate the milestone of its 3millionth can, The Garden Brewery is giving ale fans the chance to win a year's supply of beer for them and a friend. 24 beers will be delivered each month, for 12 months, to the winner and their nominated friend. To enter the competition, you just need to sign up for The Garden Brewery's monthly newsletter here

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

Last year, the Croatian brewing sector did excellently, they generated slightly more than 2.3 billion kuna in total revenues and a consolidated profit of 284.4 million kuna, which is 17.8 percent more than was recorded back in 2018. The Zagreb brewery (Zagrebacka pivovara) has done brilliantly this year, regardless of the ongoing crisis.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 6th of August, 2020, in 2019, as a characteristic precursor to the turbulent period of business under the negative effects of coronavirus on the economy, the Croatian brewing sector managed to do surprisingly well, as referenced with the accompanying figures above.

According to Fina's data, which is traditionally published on the topic on the occasion of the International Beer Day on August the 5th, last year, a total of 92 enterprises operated in the Croatian brewing sector, which is four more than were registered as in operation back in 2018.

However, in this regard, a new question arises as to how many employees they had in total. Namely, Fina's announcement states that in 2019, there were a total of 1592 employees in this activity, which is an increase of 2.5 percent when compared to 2018. However, this is a slightly smaller number of employees compared to Fina's earlier announcement related to the Croatian brewing sector for back in 2018, in which they state that 88 enterprises employed 1622 employees. If this data has been taken into account when analysing the latest trends, then it wouldn't be the stated 2.5 percent of last year's growth, but in actual fact a decrease in the number of employees in the beer industry of about 1.8 percent in 2019 compared to 2018.

Additionally, according to Fina, last year's framework represents another 1.4 percent decrease in total revenue in the Croatian brewing sector when compared to back 2018, followed by an increase in total expenditures of 2.1 percent, with slightly more of the total number of enterprises in this segment operating at a profit than there were in 2018, ie 44 such enterprises (47.8 percent).

Out of 92 enterprises operating in this activity, ten are exporters (9.1 percent more than in 2018) who earned 253.2 million kuna on the foreign market, which is 18.4 percent less than in 2018. They also recorded a higher number of importers (26), which is an increase of 44.4 percent when compared to 2018, as well as a 7 percent increase in imports, which amounted to 414 million kuna. This, according to the aforementioned Fina report, resulted in an increase in the negative trade balance by 110 percent - from 76.6 to 160.8 million kuna.

The largest total revenue - 1.1 billion kuna was generated by Zagrebačka pivovara (Zagreb brewery), which was also the largest exporter. Last year, the company had 577 employees who earned a handsome average monthly net salary in the amount of 11,791 kuna. It showed a positive business result - 234.1 million kuna in 2019 compared to 233.2 million kuna in 2018, when, according to Fina, it had 560 employees who took home an average monthly net salary of 12,728 kuna, which means that there was an 8 percent decrease in take home pay.

Heineken Croatia generated total revenues in the amount of 673.3 million kuna and is in second place in 2019 according to the above criteria, while the positive operating result amounts to 64.1 million kuna. Last year it had 326 employees and seems to have had the highest net salary in the entire industry. The average monthly net salary of 12,157 kuna represents a decrease of about 9 percent when compared to 2018, when it amounted to 13,310 kuna, while in 2018, the company employed 321 employees.

For more on the Croatian brewing sector, follow our business section.