CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
- The company performs systematic and strategic work in the area of corporate social responsibility. We have created a Sustainability Team which consists of people responsible for all of the company’s key areas of activity / departments. Priorities in the field of social responsibility are defined each year;
- One of the priority areas defined by the Cēsu alus brewery is the education of the public regarding alcohol addiction prevention, placing the main emphasis on youths and secondary school students;
- The local community, within the scope of the social responsibility of Cēsu alus, is the public of Cēsis and its municipality;
- The company publishes its financial statements (annual accounts) and non-financial statements in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports on its website;
- The company takes care of its reputation by implementing social responsibility projects both within the context of product development and the entire beer industry;
- When defining its position on industry development matters, Cēsu alus realises the representation of the company’s and industry’s interests through the agency of professional associations. The company is a member of both beer and non-alcoholic beverage industry associations, as well as of institutions representing the opinion of food companies;
- As the largest operating brewery in Latvia, Cēsu alus initiates and implements projects promoting beer culture, for example, with the “Beer Master Class” series of public education events.
AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
- The company performs systematic and strategic work in the area of corporate social responsibility. We have created a Sustainability Team which consists of people responsible for all of the company’s key areas of activity / departments. Priorities in the field of social responsibility are defined each year;
- One of the priority areas defined by the Cēsu alus brewery is the education of the public regarding alcohol addiction prevention, placing the main emphasis on youths and secondary school students;
- The local community, within the scope of the social responsibility of Cēsu alus, is the public of Cēsis and its municipality;
- The company publishes its financial statements (annual accounts) and non-financial statements in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports on its website;
- The company takes care of its reputation by implementing social responsibility projects both within the context of product development and the entire beer industry;
- When defining its position on industry development matters, Cēsu alus realises the representation of the company’s and industry’s interests through the agency of professional associations. The company is a member of both beer and non-alcoholic beverage industry associations, as well as of institutions representing the opinion of food companies;
- As the largest operating brewery in Latvia, Cēsu alus initiates and implements projects promoting beer culture, for example, with the “Beer Master Class” series of public education events.
REPRESENTATION OF INTERESTS
AS “Cēsu alus” supports and represents the company’s interests in so far as it relates to the promotion of sustainable growth and development of the whole beer and beverage production industry.
AS “Cēsu alus” is a member of the following organisations for industry and national economy development, and entrepreneurial interest representation:
- Employers’ Confederation of Latvia
- Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Latvian Federation of Food Companies
- Latvian Brewers’ Association
- Brewer and Packaging Union
- Association of Non-Alcoholic Beverage Producers
- Latvian Association for Quality
- Latvian Association of Testing Laboratories
- Latvian Association for People Management
- The Association of Accountants of the Republic of Latvia
- GS1 Latvia
- Finnish Trade Guild in Riga
ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY
- AS “Cēsu alus” supports a transparent and responsible remuneration system which it realises within the company and respects in its cooperation partners.
- AS “Cēsu alus” does not do business with representatives of the shadow economy. Therefore, the company’s business strategy includes and implements strict criteria in the verification of credit standings, as well as the selection of customers and customer agreements, especially in the trade and HoReCa sector.
- TAXES PAID BY AS “CĒSU ALUS” IN 2021
CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY
- Each year the company defines its priority sponsoring and support areas, however the sponsoring strategy basically does not change – Cēsu alus supports events of long-term significance, which have run for several years and become traditions. By continuously improving the company’s operation, we choose to support events which create true values and bring lasting emotions to their visitors;
- In addition to the defined financial support and sponsoring projects, we review submitted projects which the company might choose to support by providing our products at events;
- Priority is given to the local community when providing support for events, and it is determined that the local community within the scope of the social responsibility of Cēsu alus is the public of Cēsis and its municipality;
- One of the support project priorities is the education of the public which the company realises by implementing the alcohol addiction prevention project “Be Independent!” in secondary schools of Latvia, as well as the unique “Beer Master Class” educational series of events;
- The charitable side of the social contribution of Cēsu alus is apparent in its long-term support for the Cēsis day centre “Saules taka” which gathers and takes care of children from disadvantaged families in Cēsis Municipality;
- The company runs the Cēsu alus Pensioners’ Club which unites the company’s former and current long-term employees, establishes and maintains the social link and sense of belonging to the company, as well positively effects the quality of the respective people’s social life.
WORK WITH CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS
- The Quality Policy of Cēsu alus prescribes that efficient partnerships with customers and suppliers ensure their trust in the company as a safe producer and supplier;
- Our objective is to continuously improve the company’s quality management system on the basis of measurements, comprehensive analysis and successful cooperation with our partners;
- The customers of Cēsu alus are representatives of the trade industry – shops and networks of shops, as well as cafés, restaurants and hotels. The customers of Cēsu alus can be roughly divided into two segments – trade customers (retail establishments) and customers of the HoReCa sector (hotels, restaurants and cafés);
- Whereas the suppliers of Cēsu alus are Latvian and foreign companies which supply us with beverage raw materials, technological equipment and other resources necessary for ensuring the support functions;
- Work with customers is carried out systematically – in accordance with the requirements of the BRC quality standard (BRC for Food Safety certificate) we perform the Customer Satisfaction and Retention Survey once every year, and we also publish informative materials – the Cēsu alus Customer Newspaper. We have also developed a special procedure for submitting and reviewing complaints, which allows our customers and suppliers to submit suggestions and complaints in the most convenient manner, form and time for them, as well as receive feedback;
- Work with the company’s suppliers – the largest procurements, tenders and selection of suppliers – is mostly carried out at the Olvi Group level, thus optimising both time and financial resources in order to ensure the best supply process;
- Suppliers are selected on the basis of their international recognition (quality standards);
- We randomly perform supplier audits, and once every three years we carry out a supplier survey in the form of a questionnaire.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
- The vision of Cēsu alus is to be the development leader of the Latvian beverage market, which the company is accomplishing by expanding its portfolio of innovative products – creating and introducing new product categories, segments, flavours and packaging;
- The company also actively involves its employees in product development by organising Innovation Week once per year, during which the departments of the company can create and present their innovative product ideas. Moreover, the employees have the opportunity to submit their product ideas on a daily basis by using the Idea Box;
- Cēsu alus also involves beer lovers and consumers in the generation of new product ideas and the improvement of current products by establishing and maintaining an active dialogue through various social networks: Draugiem, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram;
- For several years Cēsu alus has promoted public engagement in product development through the annual campaign of its leading brand – Cēsu Premium – for example, by giving everyone the opportunity to create their own unique beer can designs. These campaigns possess a certain cultural and historical significance every year, and they are implemented within the context of current events taking place in Latvia.
- The operation of Cēsu alus is based on responsible marketing both by initiating the creation and observation of the Latvian Brewery Self-Regulating Code of Ethics and entering into a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Latvia regarding compliance with responsible marketing, and educating child audiences instead of directing communication and advertising activities towards them;
- High and constant quality is the priority in the production, filling and selling of products which is confirmed by strict adherence to legal requirements within our brewery, as well as the globally recognised BRC for Food Safety food production quality certificate, which Cēsu alus introduced voluntarily, being the first food industry company in Latvia to do so.
PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT AND WORK SAFETY
- The company’s values provide that professional, satisfied and loyal employees are the most important resource of Cēsu alus, in helping to meet the set objectives;
- The Personnel Development Vision of Cēsu alus is as follows: “Our employees truly strive for and achieve outstanding results!” According to this vision, work on personnel development, motivation and training is systematically and strategically carried out;
- Team and teamwork are among the most important values of the company. Teamwork allows us to set and meet challenging objectives, collaborate in the decision making process, and take responsibility;
- Once every two years Cēsu alus carries out the Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey, which is a group level project;
- Each year we organise Annual Development Discussions with each employee, as a result of which Individual Development Maps are drafted, serving as the basis for meeting the employee’s training needs;
- Training is developed and carried out systematically – in accordance with the individual needs and development objectives of each employee, as well as the development objectives of the team. The company carries out both internal and external training, engaging the necessary specialists;
- Cēsu alus has selected coaching – for individuals, as well as teams and groups – as its personnel development method. Mentoring has been introduced as a means for knowledge transfer and continuity, which our current employees use in helping the new managers and employees to adapt to the work environment;
- Each year we also define the priority areas of development for the improvement of the overall knowledge of our employees – the most efficient means of increasing and standardising knowledge is the new “Employee Master Class” concept project, which has been carried out within the company since autumn of 2012;
- The employee guide to the company’s culture and values is the “Manual of an Outstanding Employee”, which has been handed out to every employee of the company since 2012;
- Another internal employee communication channel besides the informal ones is the company’s internal newspaper “Iesaliņš” and, since 2013, also the internal newspaper of the Olvi Group – “My Olvi”;
- There is also a trade union that has been operating within the company for several years, and it is an excellent partner in maintaining an efficient relationship between the employer and the employees. We also have a long-running collective agreement with the trade union which ensures a variety of social benefits in addition to those prescribed by law;
- In 2014, Cēsu alus started a work efficiency promotion project, which also contributes to the development of the industry, as it ensures the employment of interns. It relieves the professional activities of our employees and contributes to the development of beer industry-related education by ensuring long-term internship positions in the respective specialisations;
- The company also regularly participates in career selection projects by promoting the company’s image as a stable and sustainable employer and by promoting the necessity of food industry and technology studies, as well as a presentable image of the future profession.
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
- The strategic objective of the AS “Cēsu alus” environmental policy is to ensure sustainable development in accordance with the environmental protection requirements – strict adherence to legal requirements and self-initiatives are at the basis of the company’s environmental strategy;
- Care and concern for continuous improvements along with adherence to the current environmental legal requirements and consideration for those planned in the future are always at the basis of the company’s economic activity;
- The company regularly evaluates and decreases the consumption of natural resources (energy resources, fuel, water etc.) and pollutant emissions to the extent possible, carries out recycling, and reduces the amount of waste at its place of origin wherever possible;
- One of the most extensive recent investment objects at the Cēsu alus production plant has been the biological water pre-treatment equipment installed within the territory of the production plant with the purpose of ensuring environmental preservation;
- Economy of energy resources is implemented systematically by integrating it into our technology development and investment projects;
- Green procurement – one of the aspects of the social responsibility of Cēsu alus in the context of environmental preservation – is implemented through the ecological versions of primary and secondary packaging of certain products and within the scope of recycling projects. Thus reducing product impact on the environment and making the implementation of certain stages of the product life cycle greener;
- The company also invests in the improvement of the local community’s urban environment both by taking care of the production plant and its adjacent territories and by implementing separate large-scale projects such as the construction of a new skatepark in Cēsis, which gives the youths an opportunity to spend their free time in a productive manner (youths are one of the primary social responsibility target audiences of Cēsu alus as an alcohol producer).
High product quality
- We provide customers and consumers with products that are of high and constant quality, safe for consumption, as well as corresponding with their needs and desires;
- The Quality Policy of AS “Cēsu alus” foresees the improvement of existing products by facilitating the development of new products and their introduction in the market. Increasing market competitiveness by simultaneously complying with the needs of the consumers and customers, as well as the requirements prescribed by the laws and regulations of the Republic of Latvia, and Codex Alimentarius;
- Our task is to maintain, improve and evaluate the company’s quality management system, which covers the BRC standard requirements, and ensure the regular improvement of its efficiency by constantly increasing the consumers’ and customers’ satisfaction with the product and service quality;
- We form an understanding among the company’s employees regarding their contribution to the development of the company and achievement of the set objectives, as well as a sense of responsibility regarding the quality of the products and services provided;
- We continuously improve the company’s quality management system on the basis of measurements, comprehensive analysis and successful cooperation with our partners.
Cēsu alus operates according to the following quality standards:
- Self-regulation system;
- HACCP;
- Since 2006, Cēsu alus has been maintaining one of the strictest voluntarily applicable food safety and quality management standards in the world – BRC Global Standard for Food Safety – for beer in PET bottles (Cēsu alus was the first food producer in Latvia to receive this certificate).
There is a certified testing laboratory operating within the brewery of Cēsu alus, and it corresponds to the requirements of the LVS EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard. The laboratory carries out chemical and microbiological tests of raw materials, intermediate products, as well as finished products. The work is carried out according to the current international and national standard methods and by using appropriate technical equipment, thus ensuring the acquisition of accurate and reliable results.
Ethics policy
Basic principles of the ethical attitude and behaviour of the employees of Cēsu alus:
- Honest and respectful attitude towards the customers, oneself, colleagues and the company by accepting differences in opinions, experience, and the way of thinking;
- Professional development, improvement of skills and the ability to learn from one’s own experience and that of others;
- Fair and responsible attitude in any negotiations regarding a possible deal within the interests of AS “Cēsu alus” or outside of AS “Cēsu alus”, without favouring one’s own personal interests or those of one’s family and other relatives, as well as those of one’s friends and acquaintances;
- The requesting, accepting or giving of presents or other benefits with the aim of influencing decisions is not supported;
- Efficient operation and development depends on the contribution of every employee, including his or her professionalism and behaviour;
- Observation of the generally accepted behavioural norms at work, as well as outside of it, is confirmation of each employee’s personality and a guarantee of a positive company image;
- Inviolability and protection of one’s personal life from the side of the company.
Responsible marketing communication
By realising responsible marketing communication, Cēsu alus has initiated and observes the main principles of ethics of the industry and the field of advertising:
- Brewers’ Code of Ethics
- Code of Ethics of Latvian Advertising Professionals
- Membership in the “Be Free” association
- Memorandum on cooperation regarding changes in the advertising of non-alcoholic beverages aimed at children
Social responsibility in Olvi group
Olvi and its subsidiaries have been in business for centuries – and responsible practices have always been a part of our operations.
Corporate responsibility is one of our values and a crucial component of strategic and operational decision-making, and therefore a natural part of the company’s everyday operations. In order to better respond to the expectations and needs of different stakeholders, we want to develop the beverage industry towards more responsible one, and therefore we make responsible choices ourselves and help our partners and consumers do the same.
Corporate responsibility is traditionally divided into three areas: economic, social and environmental responsibility. These areas serve as the fundamentals in our thinking where we have divided Olvi’s corporate responsibility into four focus areas:
- sustainable value chain
- best place to work
- creating value for stakeholders
- consumers and products
through which we communicate about our actions and objectives. In addition to these four focus areas, one of the cornerstones of our operations regardless of the focus area is ethical business. It penetrates all of the focus areas and works like an umbrella guiding the operations.
More about social responsibility at the Olvi Group here.
Olvi Group companies are committed to observing and having respect to select national and international agreements and guidelines. These support and guide the realisation of our corporate responsibility. More about our commitments here.

- Signing the Sustainability Code
- Leadership Academy
- Life cycle analysis of Cēsus Premium beer
- Launch of the deposit system
- Energy efficiency improvements (investments in heat recovery projects)
- Employee satisfaction and engagement survey

- Business and industry development – acquisition of Piebalga brewery and water brand Everest
- Employee satisfaction and engagement survey
- Employee Trust Board
- Employee wellbeing master classes
- Better Future campaign and promises to future generations
- CDP Reporting and Environmental Risk Assessment
- GDPR audit
- Risk management matrix

- UN Sustainable Development Goal setting
- Implementation of the new version of the ISO 5001: 2018 Energy Management Standard
- The concept of remote work and master classes of employee well-being
- Support in the fight against Covid-19: production of disinfectants, foil on cans, e-shop with delivery throughout Latvia
- 100% green electricity
- Efficient circulation of electronic documents
- Member of the deposit organization DIO

- Occupational Health and Safety Management Standard ISO 45001
- Internal Shadow Day project
- E-learning “Social responsibility at Olvi Group and Cēsu alus” for all employees
- Introduction of Whistleblowing system
- Employee satisfaction and engagement survey
- National movie “Blizzard of Souls” support

- Vides pārvaldības sistēmas sertifikāts ISO 14001
- Kvalitātes vadības sistēmas sertifikāts ISO 9001
- European Business Awards balva: Nacionālais uzvarētājs kategorijā Sociālā atbildība un rūpes par vidi
- Darbinieku meistarklase: motivācija un enerģija
- Energoefektivitātes un darba vides uzlabošanas projekti
- Kanes Disku Golfa parka izveide Cēsīs

- Achieving the highest score in the Sustainability Index – Platinum Category
- Setting Sustainability Goals
- Social responsibility training at the Olvi Group level
- Energy Management System certification ISO 50001
- The Mission Possible project
- Collecting KPI data for the Olvi Group Social Responsibility Report

- Corporate social responsibility audit in all Olvi group companies
- Personnel engagement survey
- Gold Helmet award for promoting sustainable working life
- The Annual Award of Employers’ Confederation of Latvia
- Creating a 3D virtual video tour of Cēsu alus brewery
- Employee masterclass (change management, LEAN, emotional intelligence)

- Latvian symbols on the packaging
- Use of Latvian barley in the brewing process
- “BEER FOR YOUR CITY” project for engaging the public
- Establishment of the Cēsu alus Pensioners’ Club

- Largest brewery in Latvia
- Cēsu alus = Latvian quality
- Improvement of the work environment
- Stress relief and bureaucracy reduction projects
- Cēsu alus scholarships
- Position Mission project within the company

- Beer Master Class
- Construction of a skatepark in Cēsis
- Environmental audit within the company
- Customer Survey
- Employee Satisfaction Survey
- Introduction of mentoring method

- Creation of the Sustainability Team
- Be Independent! – alcohol addiction prevention project
- Introduction of coaching method
- CSR priorities and industry position
- Introduction of environmental monitoring documentation

- Value implementation project
- Employee Satisfaction Survey
- Social responsibility section on the website
- Market of Good Intentions – voluntary employee work initiative

- Invitation from the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia
- First self-assessment
- 360 Degree Employee Satisfaction Survey