Weather is right, sales are not
Saving on beer is saved – brewer and gastro under pressure
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Consumers are not in a party mood. Breweries in Germany are felt. Not every company will make it, the forecast of a brewery leader is.
Falling demand, overcapacity and price struggles put pressure on Germany’s brewer. According to the Veltin brewery, the industry’s drop in sales of 6.8 percent in the first five months of the year in the first five months of the year. “The beer market is currently weakening on a scale that we have not experienced since reunification,” said the managing director of sales at Veltins, Rainer Emig.
Industry will probably not catch up
According to Veltins, the industry -wide loss of around 2.3 million hectoliters compared to the same period in the previous year is about twice as high as the usual decline in the annual market. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, the market has lost more than 400,000 hectoliters. Even in the Pandemie Year of 2021 with Corona-Lockdown, more beer was sold during the period. The industry will hardly be able to catch up with the unexpectedly high decline in the further course of 2025.
The weather in the first half of 2025 should have helped the beer manufacturers and the gastronomy, said Veltins brewery chief Volker Kuhl. “But it doesn’t. People continued to hold onto their wallet.” It is often about the second or third beer that is currently not being drunk. It will probably take until 2026 for the industry to benefit from the consumer climate again.
In the strong shrinking beer market, Veltins achieved a sales increase from 2.3 percent to 1.78 million hectoliters in the first half of 2025. New products are growth sponsors. Veltins Pilsener’s trunk brand increased by 1.3 percent. However, the barrel beer sales fell by about five percent.
Hard competition for non -alcoholic beer
In the first three months of the year, sales declines, according to the German Brewer Association, were almost exclusively affected by alcohol-containing beer types, while almost all non-alcoholic varieties were able to grow. The sales of non -alcoholic Pils therefore rose by 9 percent and 15 percent of non -alcoholic cyclists.
Many breweries attempted to make up for the ground with non -alcoholic products, which a particularly hard competition developed, said brewery chief Kuhl. “In our view, non -alcoholic beers are at best a patch that relieves the pain.” They are not a rescuer in the crisis.
According to alcohol -free beers in supermarkets and beverage markets, only about a third of the declines in the alcoholic beers can compensate for around a third. Kuhl now sees a point reached “where we will see that there are breweries that give up or sell them”. Not every brewery will manage to be able to continue as before.
Overcapacity increase
Niklas Other, editor of the beverage market magazine “Inside”, says: “The overcapacity increases from year to year.” There are only occasional acquisitions and closures, although the market shrinks. Rounds in sales and increasing costs went to the substance of the brewers. The investment requirement is high. In view of the overcapacity, the trading groups would have an easy game of buying beer cheap.
Brewer bond mentions the year disappointing
The German Brewer Association is disappointing the course of the year. The almost 1,500 breweries in Germany are under high cost pressure, also because of the personnel costs. As with gastronomy and trade, the poor consumer mood is fully on the business of the breweries, said general manager Holger Eichele.
According to Eichele, the situation of gastronomy is also worrying: “Many companies are fighting for survival.” It is all the more important that “the Bundestag is now quickly launching the agreed relief, in particular the 7 percent VAT on food”. This could help stabilize the gastronomy in the area. Brewers and other suppliers of the gastronomy would also benefit from this.
According to Nielseniq’s market researchers, beer is bought more often in doses. Taken together, supermarkets, beverage markets and petrol stations put more than ten percent of the amount of beer in half -liter cans. Nielseniq beverage expert Marcus Strobl sees as a reason that young people are used to doses through the energy drinks. The beer box with 20 half-liter reusable glass bottles remains dominant with almost 50 percent of the amount of beer sold in the trade. The many price campaigns at large brands of the Pils beer in the trade in the trade would have a share.
dpa
Source: Stern