Turkish glass maker Anadolu Cam is looking beyond beer bottles towards an expanded presence in the Russian market, a company executive said.
Anadolu Cam, part of Turkish glass manufacturer Sisecam Gr…
Turkish glass maker Anadolu Cam is looking beyond beer bottles towards an expanded presence in the Russian market, a company executive said. Anadolu Cam, part of Turkish glass manufacturer Sisecam Group, has been active in Russia since 2002 and has three glass packaging factories in the country. It is the leader in the Russian market for beer bottles. “We are determined to go beyond our focus on the (Russian) beer sector by completing our investments and turning towards other sectors,” the head of Sisecam“s glass packaging division, Teoman Yenigun, said on 14 June 2005. “We have reached an adequately large market share in the beer sector. Hence in the future we will broaden our product range and make a rapid entry into the food, spirits and soft drink sectors,” he said. Russia offers ample potential for market expansion given that glass packaging there amounts to 10 kg per person compared to 40 kg in the European Union, he said. The company“s Ruscam Gorohvets factory has an annual capacity of 320,000 tonnes, while its Ruscam Pakrovsky factory will reach 200,000 tonnes on completion of upgrades in August 2005. The Ruscam-Ufa plant is expected to reach a total capacity of about 240,000 tonnes when its two furnaces start operation from April 2006, giving a total capacity of more than 750,000 tonnes from all three plants. In contrast, none of the rival local glass plants have a capacity exceeding 200,000 tonnes, Yenigun said. Anadolu Cam“s share of the beer bottle market will exceed 50% once the current investments are completed, compared with 28% at present, he said. Meanwhile, the Russian beer market is expected to grow by an average of 5 to 6% per annum until 2010, he said. “There is no reason why we cannot increase our capacity to 1.5 million tonnes in the coming three years from 750,000 tonnes currently,” Yenigun said.