Baltic Beverages Holding AB (BBH) has announced the official inauguration of its new brewery in Uzbekistan.

The new business, Sarbast Plus, is a joint venture with a local partner, where BBH controls 75.1%. The two partners have invested approximately 50 million EURO into building the greenfield brewery in Tashkent, as well as in training and development of marketing and distribution systems.

The brewery started shipments of its first local brand, Sarbast, in July 2007. The initial planned capacity of the plant is one million hectolitres per annum, with the potential to double the capacity by the end of 2008.

All production processes are fully automatic, the quality control system has been designed and installed by a specialist team from BBH, combining the expertise of Carlsberg and Scottish & Newcastle. The equipment was provided by leading manufacturers.

The new operation directly creates 300 new jobs, while supporting new jobs in auxiliary companies.

With a population of approximately 27 million, a stable economy and growing level of beer consumption (ca 10 litres per capita), BBH believes the Uzbekistan market has the potential to grow strongly in the future.

"SARBAST" means "free, independent" in ancient Uzbek.