Responsible drinking

Respektuj 18 (Respect 18) is our flagship project. It started in 2013 in cooperation with the Drug Prevention and Therapy Centre and with the support of the City of Pilsen. In 2017, it was rolled out to other cities and today, it has nine partners, including the non-profit sphere (Drug Prevention and Therapy Centre, SANANIM and Podané ruce (Helping Hand) NGOs, municipalities, and regions (the Pilsen Regional Authority, the City of Pilsen, the Moravian – Silesian Regional Authority, the City of Ostrava, and Prague municipal districts 13 and 14). For the first time, we also expanded to Slovakia. In the years to come, we want to gradually expand to all Czech regions.

The emphasis is on public events during which we proactively address the broadest possible public. Our effort is to diminish the tolerant attitude of adults towards underage drinking and deter experience with alcohol among youth. The project enjoys the support of famous and respected personalities; last year, for example, the Czech skiing champion Ondřej Bank assisted as the campaign’s patron.

Every consumer has the right to know what they are consuming, both in terms of the alcohol content and the composition and nutritional values of the product they are buying. Although Czech legislation is quite strict in this respect, you will not find this information on every bottle of beer or wine, as alcoholic beverages are exempt from most of these obligations.

We, however, decided several years ago – the first brewery in the Czech Republic to do so – to publish complete information about all of our products. Thus, you can find the contents, caloric values and nutrition facts of all our products online at www.napivosrozumem.cz.

At the same time, we are gradually implementing the publishing of selected nutritional facts on our packaging (especially the product’s caloric value). By the end of 2017, we gave the caloric value on more than 90 percent of our products, exceeding our original target by 10 percent.

Everybody says the following morning, “I wish I had stopped drinking earlier.” But there are smartphone applications which can monitor your alcohol consumption. One such app that has become a well-known service is ‘PROMILE Info’, which can be found on the website www.napivosrozumem.cz.

Both the website and the app were developed in cooperation with the drug centre SANANIM and both already have a following. In 2017, the application was largely upgraded to meet the expectations of modern consumers for online assistance. The basic feature of the app, apart from awareness information such as why alcohol is harmful during pregnancy, is the so-called ‘alculator’. Using information about time and the number of drinks consumed, it calculates the alcohol content in the bloodstream and the rate of alcohol metabolization. Based on the parameters entered, this mobile app is even capable of letting the user know when to stop drinking, if, for example, they plan on getting behind the wheel the following morning.

The website also serves as an on-line advisory centre. People can turn to experts with questions about what to do when one of their loved ones starts having problems with alcohol, etc. It also offers a test on the user’s relationship to alcohol and a lot of other information.

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, we have established a tradition of providing chill-out zones called K-lee-deck at major summer music festivals in the country. There, visitors can have the amount of alcohol in their system measured and get practical information on its effects on the body, or they can just relax for a moment from the festival rush and give their body and mind some rest.

K-lee-deck has become a traditional part of all our festival events. In 2017, we reached out to 25,537 visitors, which is 9 percent more than in 2016. More than 8,900 visitors voluntarily took a breath test to make sure that they could safely return home by car after the end of the festival.

Few people have any idea how strict the rules are for those at Plzeňský Prazdroj who are in charge of creating advertising for our products. The following is a selection of our main rules which form our Code of Commercial Communication.

Respecting these principles should, first of all, protect young people. Unlike some other people, we do not want to tell them, “Have a beer, it’ll be cool!”

Compliance with the Code of Commercial Communication is monitored by our internal Responsibility Committee, which inspects each and every advertisement, flyer or sponsorship proposal before they are released. The Committee members are representatives of Plzeňský Prazdroj’s top management and it is chaired by the executive director of the National Advertising Council.

In 2017, the National Advertising Council received no complaints from the public regarding Plzeňský Prazdroj’s advertising.

Every employee of Plzeňský Prazdroj must complete responsible drinking training, part of which is the so-called ABC of Alcohol and the Alcohol IQ. The company also offers help to those who may have actual problems with alcohol.

With the aim of preventing alcohol abuse and excessive and irresponsible consumption, we actively cooperate with other organizations, especially the Czech Beer and Malt Association, on the following projects:

“Člověče, nezlob se” (Don’t get angry, man”)
Teaches vendors how to reject selling alcohol to minors. In Makro chain stores alone, over 10 thousand shop assistants have taken the course. The Tesco, Kaufland, and Coop retailers have also taken part in the program, as well as a number of small convenience stores (via Makro).

“I’m having alcohol-free beer ‘cause I’m driving”
This activity addresses drivers. Plzeňský Prazdroj donates its Birell non-alcoholic beer to those who have no alcohol in their system when checked by the police.

We also abide by the Ethical Code of Responsible Brewers, observance of which is mutually controlled by members of the workforce Social Responsibility of Breweries recruited from within the member companies.