The company will use the loan to finance the purchase of new brewing and fermentation-maturation equipment. Mekhnat Pivo also plans to implement expansion plans by improving its operational productivity and strengthening its marketing and distribution activities under growing competition on the market.

Mekhnat Pivo was established in 2004 and over recent years has more than doubled its production capacity. The EBRD has supported this expansion of a local producer with two previous loans in 2005 and 2007. The company is based in the capital Tashkent where it has a brewery and produces beer in bottles, kegs and PET bottles. Since last year, the company started to develop its own distribution network.

Fernand Pillonel, head of the EBRD office in Tashkent, said the EBRD was pleased to continue the successful cooperation with a strong domestic Uzbek producer like Mekhnat Pivo. “The new loan will be a major step towards implementing the company’s long term strategy to establish itself as a strong and stable local player on the market.”

Hamdamali Rahmankulov, executive director of Mekhnat Pivo, expressed his “gratitude to the EBRD for its strong commitment in the difficult times of the global financial crisis, for our fruitful cooperation and the confidence in supporting a local brewery.” The new equipment to be purchased according to our strategic investment plan will further strengthen the competitiveness of the company, raise the quality of our production to European standards, and allow Mekhnat Pivo to increase its market share, he added.

Since its start of operations in 1991, the EBRD has invested about €550 million into more than 50 projects in Uzbekistan. This year the Bank will sign 6 projects in Uzbekistan (agribusiness, general industry and telecommunications) as well as 2 regional facilities also benefiting Uzbekistan, for more than €30 million.

In the agribusiness sector alone, the EBRD has directly committed more than €5.0 billion in over 330 projects across Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States since 1991.