July the 20th, 2023 – The Zagreb Brewery (Zagrebacka pivovara) has invested an enormous sum of money. Over eleven million euros to be more precise.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, in the past year, The Zagreb Brewery had two major investments, the first of which was the finalisation of an investment worth almost 18 million kuna (2.6 million euros) in the logistics, distribution and commercial centre in Zaprešić near Zagreb. The second investment worth 64 million kuna (8.5 million euros), was in a technologically advanced line for filling and packaging cans, with which the Zagreb production facility fully satisfied the constant growth in market demand for beer in cans. Both of these investments further increased the company’s overall sustainability, the competitiveness of domestic production, and offered consumers new formats and multipacks of beer in cans.
Energy efficiency in production
As The Zagreb Brewery pointed out in their second sustainability report, these investments are proof that this company is continuously investing in projects that have an impact on increasing energy efficiency in production, which is reflected in the reduction of water, electricity and thermal energy consumption. According to their report, this new line for cans saved more than 9 thousand m3 of water, more than 350 thousand kWh of electricity and almost 9 million MJ of thermal energy (steam). For a better understanding of the aforementioned figures – this amount of water would almost four average Olympic size swimming pools and use the electricity consumed by more than 100 Croatian households in one year on average.
An increase in the share of local suppliers
Back in 2022, The Zagreb Brewery continued its successful cooperation with the local community and increased the share of local suppliers to 74.7 percent of the total procurement value, which is an increase of 3.1 percent compared to 2021.
Alina Ružić, member of the Management Board of The Zagreb Brewery and the director of legal and corporate affairs, pointed out that thanks to constant innovations and the daily engagement of employees, within the Molson Coors Beverage Company (MCBC) group, the owner of this Croatian brewery, they managed to achieve the best global results in energy consumption, losses of beer and the efficiency of the return bottle line and the second best result in water consumption.
A reduction in water and energy use, an increase in sustainability
“Water and energy are the two most important resources in the production of beer, and our brewery continuously finds ways to reduce the use of them and turn to more sustainable energy sources. In the coming period, we definitely plan to increase our focus on environmental issues, especially when it comes to increasing the share of energy from renewable sources and reducing CO2 emissions.
We’re already going in the right direction because back in 2022, 12,900 MWh of electricity was delivered to The Zagreb Brewery, 100 percent of it came from renewable sources, and 15.5 percent less PET packaging material was used in the production process. Last but by no means least, we mustn’t forget that 2022 was our celebratory year. Through numerous gatherings with our consumers, we’ve shown that Ožujsko beer has become much, much more than just beer in Croatian society over the past 130 years,” concluded Alina Ružić.
