Kamenitza ( bg, Каменица) is one of the top-selling

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

companies, alongside

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Febr ...

and Astika based in the city of

Haskovo Haskovo ( bg, Хасково ) is a city in the region of Northern Thrace in southern Bulgaria and the administrative centre of the Haskovo Province, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. According to Operative Program Regional Develo ...

. It was established in 1881 and is currently owned by the multinational

Molson Coors The Molson Coors Beverage Company is an American-Canadian multinational drink and brewing company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in Golden, Colorado and Montreal, Quebec. Molson Coors was formed in 2005 ...

. The brewery has a wide variety of lager and dark beers. Its slogan is "Mazhete znayat zashto" which translates to "Men know why." Kamenitza had an 18% share of the Bulgarian beer market in 2005 according to data from

ACNielsen The Nielsen Corporation, self-referentially known as The Nielsen Company, and formerly known as ACNielsen or AC Nielsen, is a global marketing research firm, with worldwide headquarters in New York City, United States. Regional headquarters for ...

. The company is a sponsor of the

Bulgaria national football team The Bulgaria national football team ( bg, Български национален отбор по футбол, Bǎlgarski natsionalen otbor po futbol) represents Bulgaria in men's international Association football, football and is administere ...

. Kamenitza currently has six brands: Light (4.4% ABV), Dark (6% ABV),

non-alcoholic An alcohol-free or non-alcoholic drink, also known as a temperance drink, is a version of an alcoholic drink made without alcohol, or with the alcohol removed or reduced to almost zero. These may take the form of a non-alcoholic mixed drink (a "vi ...

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and Fresh (lemon- and grapefruit-flavoured, 2.1% ABV).Kamenitza brands
Kamenitza.bg. Retrieved Mar 2013.

History

In 1881 three

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

entrepreneurs built a brewery in

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

on a hill called Kamenitza and used the name as their brand. The drink of choice for most Bulgarians at the time was

lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage" ...

, but Kamenitza broke new ground by producing the first dark beer for the market. By the 1890s they won awards at international exhibitions, including

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

regime nationalised Kamenitza: first, in 1947, as part of the state-owned ''Alcoholic Beverages'', then in 1952 as part of '' Vinprom''. The

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

multinational company

InBev InBev () is a brewing company that resulted from the merger between Belgium-based company Interbrew and Brazilian brewer AmBev which took place in 2004. It existed independently until the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch in 2008, which formed Anheu ...

bought the Bulgarian breweries Kamenitza, Astika and

Burgasko Pivo Astika is a brewery making a blond pilsner with an alcohol content of 5% ABV in the city of Haskovo, in southern Bulgaria. The brand has a leading position in the Bulgarian premium segment. The brewery draws on the best deep-lying water in Thrac ...

in 1995 and added Plevensko Pivo in 1997. During 1997 to 2005, InBev invested 86.3 million leva in Bulgaria, and in 2005 Kamenitza sold 800,000 hectoliters, making it the best-selling domestic beer. In mid October 2009, private equity fund

CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based French private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$133 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, E ...

bought all of

Anheuser–Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters in ...

's holdings in Central Europe for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2.23 billion. They renamed the operations StarBev.Apatinska pivara prodata CVC-u, B92, October 15, 2009
/ref> Since the early 2010s, Kamenitza bottles have pull-off caps.

Gallery

Image:kamenitza-can-new-logo.jpg, 500 ml Kamenitza can, 2000s logo File:Kamenitza logo.jpg, Kamenitza 2010s logo File:Kamenitza beers.1.JPG, Kamenitza brands, 2010s

References

External links

kamenitza.bg
– official website Beer in Bulgaria Economy of Plovdiv Companies established in 1881 Molson Coors brands Bulgarian brands 1881 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Organizations based in Plovdiv {{Bulgaria-stub