Royal Unibrew's brewery in Aarhus

Royal Unibrew's brewery in Aarhus
	
As mentioned in our Announcement RU03/2008 of 7 January 2008, Royal Unibrew has
- with a view to strengthening the Group's future earnings and as a result of
the increasing raw materi-als prices - initiated negotiations with production
workers at the brewery in Aarhus (Denmark) with a view to discontinuing
production in Q4 2008. 

These negotiations have now resulted in an agreement with the employee groups
affected in order to meet needs for further education and to assist in job
seeking, and to ensure the security of supply. The Supervisory Board of Royal
Unibrew A/S has therefore authorised the Executive Board to close down
production at the brewery in Aarhus in Q4 2008. 

As previously announced, this is - without taking into account the effect of
any sale of the property and of items of a non-recurring nature relating to the
closure - expected to have a modest positive effect on the Group's results in
2009 and will increase earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by some DKK 20
million in 2010 onwards (EBITDA some DKK 30 million). 

The production close-down in Aarhus will result in impairment losses on fixed
assets of some DKK 70 million in the financial statements for 2007 (”special
items”), whereas other costs of closure according to IFRS will affect profit
before tax in 2008 (”special items”) negatively by DKK 20 million. It was
previously (cf Announcement RU03/2008 of 7 January 2008) assumed that all costs
relating to production close-down (DKK 90 million) would be recognised in the
financial statements for 2007. 

The expected impairment losses and the deferral of costs of closure to 2008
mentioned above imply a change to the expected profit for 2007 of the Royal
Unibrew Group to an amount of DKK 220-240 million before tax. It is furthermore
anticipated that the profit will be at the lower end of the interval indicated. 

 

Royal Unibrew will continue to support the brands - amongst others Ceres, Thor
and Royal Beer - in the Eastern Jutland area by sales promoting activities and
sponsorships to the same extent as previously to secure the strong local
attachment to the products. 

A significant organisation in Aarhus with an estimated staff number of approx
60 will be main-tained. 

Please direct any questions to me at tel +45 56 77 15 00.

Yours sincerely
Royal Unibrew A/S

Poul Møller
CEO