SABMiller plc : Arany Ászok Amateur Soccer Club – an exemplary initiative (Translation)

Arany Ászok Amateur Soccer Club - an exemplary initiative (Translation)

4 January 2012

The Dreher Breweries Ltd.'s Arany Ászok Amateur Soccer Club programme has been awarded the first prize in the Exemplary CSR Project category at the Hungarian Public Relation Association's (HPRA) 2010 CSR Best Practise Competition by the professional jury.

The Hungarian Public Relation Association has distributed the CSR Best Practise awards to the companies which are both economically and socially acknowledged, and operate with commitment, authenticity, and by involving the concerned parties. Dreher Breweries has yet again been awarded a prize.

In 2009, the Dreher Breweries' flagship brand Arany Ászok started a three year cooperation aimed at supporting amateur soccer teams, rewarding individual and team efforts and building social cohesion. The teams were provided with the necessary equipment for the matches, which they could not have afforded otherwise.

When the programme began in 2009, Dreher Breweries contacted 885 teams and later managed to get another 527 teams involved with the help of the "old boys." In 2010, the brand sponsored 5 amateur regional championships and 10 futsal championships. By end of 2010, a total of 1403 teams were part of the programme, which means 20,000 players and 1.5 million fans over 17 administrative regions. Thus, a real Arany Ászok Amateur Soccer Club was born.

I was happy to join the unique initiative of Arany Ászok which sponsored more than 1000 amateur teams. I am happy to see that people are more and more interested in Hungarian soccer and that Hungarian amateur soccer is finally supported by someone," said the popular soccer player.

It is well-known that soccer is one of the most popular sports in Hungary, on both professional and amateur levels. Every city has at least one enthusiastic team playing in the amateur championship, and it is a real social event for the supporters to watch the weekly matches and attend the subsequent gatherings. "The matches have a real cohesive power for the local communities, and thus not only the players, but the supporters also benefit from the feeling of success and belonging. Most of the time these teams have very little means and have to survive on minimal financial support, struggling from day to day, when in fact amateur soccer is the favourite distraction of several thousand hard-working men. We chose to support their sporting activity instead of sponsoring a team playing in a professional championship," said Ágnes Kovács, the Arany Ászok brand manager.

"We are proud of our CSR Best Practise award as we have won a prize with our Responsible Alcohol Consumption Programme last year, and our environmental and ethical approach has been praised at several instances. These awards are a feedback to our colleagues, showing them that their efforts, commitment and work are exemplary and visible to others," said Mandy Fertetics, the corporate relations and sustainable development manager of Dreher Breweries.

Members of the jury:
- Borbála Czakó - Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, president of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum (HBLF)
- Mária Demcsák - chief editor of Piac&Profit magazine
- Dr. Péter Szeles - president of HPRA
- Dr. Gergely Tóth - secretary general of KÖVET Association for Sustainable Economies
- Zoltán Igaz - ex vice-president of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary

Other award-winners:
- Real Responsible Company category: Grundfos Hungary Lfd.
- Exemplary CSR Practise category: SAP Hungary Ltd., Tchibo Budapest Ltd., Budapest Bank, KPMG Hungária Ltd, Jabil Circuit Hungary Ltd.
- Exemplary CSR Project category: Dreher Breweries Ltd., Jabil Circuit Hungary Ltd., Coca-Cola HBC Hungary Ltd., Coop Hungary Ltd., ARKON Ltd., Budapest Bank Plc., Budapest Airport Ltd.

Should you have any further questions, we are happy to answer them. Please contact us at the following addresses.

Katalin Simon
Senior PR Specialist
Dreher Breweries Ltd.
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

Kinga Jani
Senior PR advisor
ACG PR
Email: [e-mail]
Mobile: [phone]

Dreher Breweries, Ltd's International background is provided by the world's second largest beer brewing company, the SABMiller group, which is present in more than 75 countries over 6 continents. The group has identified 10 sustainable development priorities, and Dreher Breweries has taken an active part in this initiative by creating and completing local programmes. These 10 priorities are: discouraging irresponsible alcohol consumption, environment-friendly water management, reducing energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions, packaging reuse and recycling, responsible waste-management, encouraging enterprise development in the company's value chains, community engagement, contributing to the reduction of HIV/AIDS in impacted areas, respecting human rights, and operational transparency and ethical corporate practises.

This SABMiller subsidiary news release has been translated from its local market language to English language for publication on . We have attempted to provide an accurate translation of the original material but due to the difficulties of translation slight differences may exist.

Note, the news release was first published in its local market on [2/01/2012].