CSR in Supply Chains of Brewing Industry - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 99

Fig. 3 Imports (intra-EU/extra-EU) in 2012 as a percentage of total consumption per EU
Member State (adopted from Berkhout et al. 2013 )
development because, as a rule, it indirectly contributes to development of regional
tourism and a shorter production and consumption cycle, which has a positive
influence on the environment (Jirovec and Calleja 2013 ).
The growing number of breweries and product innovations has also led to emer-
gence of new products bringing benefits to consumers, the society and environment.
Opportunities for breweries of all sizes have appeared thanks to diversification towards
low alcohol and non-alcoholic beer, which has led to a rise in sales. Availability of
ecological beer is increasing all the time, too (Jirovec and Calleja 2013 ).
2.2 Polish Brewing Industry
Thanks to fast privatisation of the leading breweries with the participation of foreign
investors, the brewing sector in Poland quickly achieved world class in terms of
technology. Between 1993 and 2002 beer production in Poland doubled (Lichota
2012 ), whereas between 2000 and 2011 alcohol consumption in Poland increased
by 30 %, half of which was beer. In 2011 beer consumption per capita amounted to
almost 94 l. As a result, the domestic beer market is currently the fifth biggest one in
Europe, right after Germany, Britain, Russia and Spain (Okrzesik 2003 ).
Approximately 80 % of beer produced in Poland is made at breweries belong-
ing to the three foreign concerns: SABMiller (Kompania Piwowarska), Heineken
(Grupa Ǚ ywiec) and Carlsberg. Such a large degree of market concentration does
not exist in any other European country. However, regional beer made at contract
breweries (beer is brewed on the basis of their own formulas in the leased part of
a large brewery's production line) or craft breweries (tiny production plants where
small amounts of beer are produced) is enjoying growing popularity ( 2014 ).