Expansion strategy of Žatec brewery into a foreign market

The Master's thesis focuses on international expansion process of a company. For the application part of the thesis I have chosen a company called Žatec brewery Ltd. which belongs into a category of small and medium enterprises. The main objectives of the thesis comprise selection of a convenient Western Balkans region market for expansion of the brewery and subsequent formulation of a specific market entry strategy. The market entry strategy consists of a market entry mode selection, competitive strategy and marketing strategy as well as marketing mix 4P. The minor objectives include characteristics of the brewery's business strategy and the role of international expansion in it and also the company's financial analysis whose results underpine its expansion possibilities. The other minor objectives comprise multi-criteria decision model creation in order to decide for the most attractive target market and the expansion key success factors identification. As for the methods used, analyzes like financial analysis, PEST analysis, Porter's model of five forces and SWOT analysis, and then comparisons dominate. Croatia was finally identified as the most suitable regional market for the brewery's expansion and the company was advised to enter it with its gluten-free lager product. It was suggested, at the same time, that the brewery use to its advantage the background provided by its current owner - beer brewing company Carlsberg.