Kofola Group acquired 100% share in Pinelli, the pioneer producer of energy drinks who entered this segment in the Czech 15 years ago. So far Kofola Group was not active in this segment.
Pinelli is a Czech company founded by entrepreneurs Mr. Milan Vik and Mr. Stanislav Hruska in 1993. Two years later, Pinelli introduced brand Semtex which has stable position on the Czech market. Semtex is the second strongest brand on the market with approximately 10% market share.
Overall, Kofola Group is number three in the Czech. The strength of the company is launching of local brands which successfully competing with global players. In the past, Kofola Group completed several interesting acquisitions – for example legendary brand Kofola. We believe that our experience helps us to utilize Semtex brand potential in the energy drinks segment.
“This acquisition fully complies with our strategy. Pinelli brands are successful, have long history and fits to our portfolio. Additionally, Pinelli is from the financial point of view a healthy company.” – says Jaroslav Bartak, CEO of Czech Kofola. “We believe that energy drinks segment is for local players very perspective. Kofola started from the same position some years ago.”
“We expect further increase of energy drinks consumption in the Czech. The average consumption is currently around two liters per capita what is approximately five times lower number compared to Austria.” – says Jiri Vlasak from Kofola, the Pinelli project leader.
“In 1995, we launched as the first company the energy drink to Czech market. This was long and successful story.” – says Stanislav Hruska, co-founder of Pinelli. “We want to see further grow of our brands and, therefore, we looked for the strategic partner with strong distribution. I am personally very glad that Semtex will be produced by traditional domestic non-alcoholic beverages producer Kofola.”
The first step after acquisition should be enlargement of current distribution and subsequent realization of Kofola’s vision for the energy drinks segment. The acquisition price will be not disclosed.