Beer consumption is increasing again – and yet the brewers fear the production stop

Germany is considered a great beer nation. And in fact, the Federal Republic of Germany occupies fifth place in the global emissions ranking behind China, the USA, Brazil and Mexico. This is shown in the annual report 2021/2022 of the world’s largest hop trader BarthHaas from Nuremberg. German breweries produced 85.4 million hectoliters in 2021 – distributed across a large number of companies.

The German beer manufacturers therefore only play a subordinate role in international competition. A total of seven domestic suppliers belong to the 40 largest brewing groups in the world. No other country is represented so often in the corresponding ranking. However, the share of these companies in world beer production is comparatively small.

Taken together, the septet produced 46.8 million hectoliters of beer last year, which is just 2.6 percent of the volume of all top 40 breweries. And according to BarthHaas, they account for 91.4 percent of the global production volume of around 1.86 billion hectoliters.

The undisputed industry leader is Anheuser-BuschInbev, headquartered in Belgium. BarthHaas reports that 582 million hectolitres produced mean a market share of almost a third. First pursuer is Heineken from the Netherlands with 231 million hectoliters brewed, which corresponds to a world market share of a good twelve percent. Behind them are Carlsberg from Denmark and China Resources Snow Breweries with 6.4 percent and six percent market share respectively.

The first brewery from Germany, the Radeberger Group, is only in 22nd place – still behind competitors from Ireland, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Chile. The Oetker subsidiary produced ten million hectoliters in 2021, a good eight fewer than in the twelve months before, which in turn were already four percent below the previous year.

The other German suppliers in the ranking are TCB Beteiligungsgesellschaft with brands such as Feldschlösschen, Gilde or Frankfurter in 24th place, plus the low-cost brewer Oettinger in 25th place. Krombacher and Paulaner follow in 30th and 31st place, as well as Bitburger in 33rd and Veltins in 40th place The Warsteiner brewery, which was ranked 39th last year, has been dropped from the ranking.

However, it should also be noted that individual brands from Germany contribute to the success of large brewing groups from abroad. Becks and Hasseröder, Spaten and Franziskaner or Löwenbräu and Diebels, for example, belong to world market leader AB Inbev. Holsten, Astra, Lübzer and Wernesgrüner are part of the Danish Carlsberg Group. In addition, Heineken holds 30 percent of the shares in Paulaner.

The numerically second strongest nations in the world beer ranking are China and Japan, each with four suppliers in the top 40. The Chinese have three top 10 spots with China Resources Snow Breweries, Tsingtao and Yanjing. Two of these three brew giants lost volume last year, as the ranking shows.

All in all, however, things went uphill again in China, as in many other countries, after the Corona shock, which hit the brewing world hard overall. Global beer consumption fell by an impressive 6.5 percent in the first year of the pandemic, and then went up again by four percent in 2021, reports BarthHaas. This means that global beer consumption remains below the pre-crisis level. “But it didn’t collapse as much as was forecast,” says Peter Hintermeier, Managing Director of BarthHaas.

However, the next downturn is already imminent. “We expect beer consumption to decline in 2022,” forecasts Heinrich Meier, the author of the BarthHaas report. One of the reasons he cites is the Russian attack on Ukraine. “Like the entire global economy, the brewing industry has been hit hard by the consequences of the Ukraine war. Around 100 million hectoliters of beer are brewed in Russia and Ukraine. This corresponds to around five percent of the volume of beer produced worldwide.” And a noticeable part of this will probably be lost.

On the other hand, Covid-19 is still not over and could lead to sales losses due to new restrictions and restrictions, which happened in 2021 in Western Europe in particular. Thirdly, Meier refers to the rapidly rising inflation. “People have less money at their disposal. And for some, beer is still a luxury they don’t have.”

There is also the risk of a gas supply stop, because breweries are among the industries with a particularly high demand for gas. “Should Russia actually stop deliveries to Europe, this would put an additional heavy burden on the industry in the affected countries,” warns BarthHaas Managing Director Hintermeier. Also in Germany.

“The industry is deeply concerned about a blackout,” warns Holger Eichele, the general manager of the German Brewers’ Association. According to his association, around two thirds of German breweries are dependent on gas. “We drive through a wall of fog at high speed. We lack planning security,” complains Eichele. This applies to both the pandemic and the energy supply.

According to the industry, a gas supply stop would currently be practically equivalent to a beer production stop. Especially since not only the breweries would be affected, but also a number of upstream suppliers, such as the malt houses or the producers of glass, cans, cardboard and other packaging.

The breweries are therefore working on emergency plans. Veltins, for example, has now built up tank capacities and a supply of heating oil for a good month so that, in an emergency, you can switch from gas to oil and thus be able to continue operating the brewhouse, reports Michael Huber, the chief representative of the Sauerland private brewery.

At the same time, the company has built up further stocks and bought goods for around 30 million euros that would otherwise have been ordered at short notice, says Huber: “In view of the uncertain supply chains, we have pushed ahead with stocking new glass, pallets, labels and glue and even rented storage space .”

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