Brewery in Hrodna comes to a halt; seeks investors

The official cause behind the sacking of all the employees is the expire of labor contracts, Andrei Loseu, the brewery director, is quoted by Narodnaya Volya newspaper as saying. The brewery phase-out was decided by the government of Belarus in 2006 because 100 percent of the equipment had already been worn out. Axing of jobs was carried out in several stages.

The Hrodna Breweries is located in the 19th-century buildings at the right bank of River Neman. Under the government's plans, the brewery should be transformed into a tourism and entertainment complex with a hotel, cafes and a small home-style brewery with the output capacity of 500 decaliters per year.

The local regional fund of energy saving is prepared to invest $100K into the project, but the authorities still need to attract $11 million from foreign investors. Besides, an investor is expected to cover the brewery's debt of $2.5 million.

No company has expressed interest in this project yet, according to Narodnaya Volya .

“Народная воля”