Krusovice Brewing Company.

This brewing company that we visited started in 1517 and continues on today. In 1731 it was taken over by the Furstenberg family and then in 1945 after WWII when the communist took over in the Czech Republic it became a state owned brewery. From 1960-1990 the Central Bohemian Brewery Association took over Krusovice under general state ownership. In 1991 the Berlin wall fell down and the communist regime was finally broken to allow for the privatization of business. In 1994 Krusovice went public and became part of binding brewery to be put on its way to large scale modernization. in 1997 they had the initiation of export activities and in 2007 Krusovice Brewery becomes part of Heineken. Heineken is in 120 different countries and is #1 in the world for brand value.

The privatization process was done by issuing coupon stocks in 1991 for shares in the company. In 1986 the company produced 240,000 Hecto liters, 1996 740,000 HL and in 2006 970,000 HL of Beer. Between 2008 and 2010 Krusovice was re-branded and they made the distinction in their business from domestic to export beer with their logo. Domestically they try to brand the beer as good for friends and the atmosphere of where people are. When they export though they try and show that the beer is the Czech royal beer and the beer of kings in Prague as a top premium beer. The slogan goes " A jewel among beers" while depicting a prague street and the old prague castle.

Krusovice Imperial is their premium product which was a gold metal winner in the world beer cup of 2006 in Seattle Washington. This beer was also awarded the world's best pilsner in London in 2009. The ingredients to all their beer is very simple coming down to water, malt, hops, hops extract and fermented to 5% alcohol.

Krusovice Cerne is 3.8% alcohol and is made mostly for the locals with a history spanning more than 100 years in the country. It was awarded the world's best dark beer in London in 2009.

Krusovice packing types are .5 l bottles, .33l bottles, .5 l cans, 30 l kegs and 50 l kegs.

The three main countries that they export to are Russia, SLovakia, and Sweden exporting 96,400 hl, 42,500 hl, and 40,000 hl respectively.

32% of their exports are bottles, 13% are cans, 55% are kegs. In 1991 they only had 16,000 hl of exports but in 2008 they had as many as 289,000 hl in exports. Their manin partner in exports is Heiniken which is involved in exports all over the globe.

In 2009 they had the 10th anniversary of exports in Russia who is their number one country to export to. They had different programs to celebrate such as Slovakia and Sweden. 45% of all they make is exported. They export to the U.S. but only to New York, San Fransico, and Chicago with a total of 4,000-5,00 HL per year. They have a capacity to produce as much as 1,500,000 HL of beer per year with Malt being their greatest cost. Bio-diesel is the main competitor of land production for Malt which is driving prices up in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is the number one consumer of beer in the world with 160 liters per year per person. This figure is including babies.