What was the effect of the decision by Czech brewery Budejovicky Budvar to make a deal with Anheuser-Busch to distribute Czechvar in the United States?
Sales were up 58% in the first half of the year.
Budvar and Anheuser-Busch signed a contract for Czechvar sales in January this year.
The two brewers have wrangled over the Budweiser trademark for more than 100 years. Disputes have been settled gradually, some of them won by the US company and others by the Czech brewer. Because A-B has the rights to the Budweiser in the US, Budvar sells its beer as Czechvar in the States.
While the growth is significant, the US was only the sixth leading market for Budvar in 2006. The brewery’s export numbers: Germany 190,000 hectolitres, Great Britain 106,000, Slovakia 60,000, Austria 45,000, Italy 10,000, United States 8,000.