Krusovice Imperial
Krusovice Dark
World ofHeineken 38 summer 2008
Krusovice Imperial
has a golden colour, is
deliciously bitter tasting
and has an excellent head.
It is made from top-quality
Bohemian malt, natural
spring water from the
Krivoklat Woods and hops
from the Zatec area.
Alcohol content: 5.0 %vol.
Krusovice Dark has been
a product of the Royal
Brewery of Krusovice for
more than 100 years.
The beer has a full, sweet
caramel taste and a slightly
hoppy flavour. This beer
has many friends at home
as well as abroad and their
number is still increasing.
Alcohol content: 3.8 %vol.
segment. In short, Czechs love their beer.
They even bathe in it.
"We have beer spas were you can do exactly
that," says Corporate Relations Manager
Katerina Eliasova. In her view, the Czech
market also presents unique challenges.
Czech consumers, for instance, tend to be
very loyal to their brand of choice, making
it hard to tempt them into trying something
new. "The relationship between consumers
and their beer is like the one they have with
their football team," says Katerina.
BEYOND RUSSIA
With export to Russia steadily growing, the
Krusovice brand is now looking to expand
beyond its current markets. Finland is one
of the next targets for Kamil Krakes and his
export team.
"Currently we have an extremely strong
cooperation with Hartwall, one of the two
biggest Finnish brewers," says Kamil. Hartwall,
a former subsidiary of Scottish Newcastle,
is a recent addition to the Heineken Group.
The two complement each other well, he says.
Krusovice sales volume doubled in Finland last
year. "Hartwall was looking for a strong Czech
brand in 2002 so we came along at exactly
the right moment."
Kamil has his eye on other new markets
too, with the US and the UK high on his list.
However replicating the Russian success
story will not be easy, he thinks. A number of
factors that played a part in Russia are unique
to that nation.
Success with a brand like Krusovice is about
finding your niche, in Kamil's view. "When
we moved into Russia, most of the big Czech
brands already had their own distributors,
so we positioned ourselves as an alternative
to the big brands." And if there is no niche,
you can always create one. Krusovice, for
instance, also makes a light-tasting dark beer.
At first Krusovice was a hard sell in Russia,
Kamil recalls. "Russians wouldn't drink dark
beer. They'd say: 'Forget about it.'" Now, this
characteristic of the beer is its unique selling
point. "It makes up half of our exports today,"
says Kamil.
kkrakes@krusovice.cz
k.eliasova@starobrno.cz
li
