Retail: These brands are most common in the special offer

Coca-Cola and Krombacher are the brands that are most often advertised in printed advertising brochures in Germany. This shows an evaluation of the market guru offer portal for the German press agency. Around 1.83 million prospectus offers were examined from January 2024 to the end of June 2025 – cross -sector and for all major retail chains. These included supermarkets, discounters, hardware stores as well as beverage and large markets.

Coca-Cola leads the ranking. In the first half of the year, the brand was offered 1,823 times at the dealers. In second place was Krombacher with 641 actions, followed by Veltins (639), Bitburger (593) and Gerolsteiner (574). All container sizes were taken into account – from barrels and boxes to six packs to single bottles and doses.

Both cola and mixed boxes flowed into the count at Coca-Cola. This can contain other types of soft drink such as Fanta, Sprite and Lift-in the classic and in the zero variant. In addition to the Pils varieties, non-alcoholic beers and mixed drinks such as cyclists, V+ and barrel shower can also be included with Krombacher, Veltins and Bitburger. At Gerolsteiner, all types of mineral water such as sparkling and still as well as lemon and raspberry were recorded.

Beer most frequently on offer

According to Marktguru, beer was the most advertised product group in food retail trade in the first half of 2025 – with 12,353 special offers. This was followed by water (9.013) and the ham and abdominal bacon category (6,898). Beer was already ahead in the same period last year.

You are not happy in the industry. The German Brewer Association criticizes the “ruinous price war of the four large trading groups”. These would have to be asked “whether they give beer the appreciation it deserves,” says general manager Holger Eichele. Krombacher did not comment.

Beer is a “sales magnet”, it says from brewer circles. “Then the family man also comes to the weekend shopping – and then the shopping cart is filled with other things.”

Customers get used to special offers

Krombacher and Veltins have recently announced price increases. The industry is struggling with falling demand. This puts the companies under pressure, sales and utilization, says Philipp Hennerkes, Managing Director of the Federal Association of German Food Trade. The result is more and more special offers. Many customers would have got used to it – and increased especially when beer was on offer.

According to the NIQ market researcher Marcus Strobl, consumers from the large Pils brands bought about two thirds of the bottle beer for actions. With new price increases, the distance between standard and action price in the trade should continue to increase.

Number of offers declining

Coca-Cola has increased prices several times in recent years. Florian von Salzen, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Germany (CCEP), says: “Coca-Cola drinks bring people into the market, ensure sales and margin at the dealer-and especially in offer campaigns.” These would be planned together with the trade. In this country, CCEP is responsible for bottling and distribution of the drinks of the US group. According to Marktguru, Coca-Cola was also the brand with the most special offers in 2024.

Striking: The total number of actions goes back. From January to June 2025, 14 percent fewer offers were counted than in the previous year. In addition to beef and milk, bean coffee, chocolate and butter were less common in advertising. For these products, consumers had to pay significantly more than a year earlier.