Falling beer consumption
Oettinger boss predicts bankruptcy wave in breweries
Health awareness has increased, the beer consumption in Germany is continuously falling. Several breweries will not survive in Germany, the head of Oettinger predicts.
According to the Oettinger boss, the German beer industry is facing a bankruptcy wave in the coming years. “The breweries will fall off the wall like flying,” said Stefan Blaschak, the managing director of the Bavarian beverage manufacturer, the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Tuesday). “The world of breweries crumbles, we see bankruptcies almost every day for the little ones, and the big ones will also meet.”
“Handtsch” in beer production
According to Blascha’s words, the cause of the development is the steadily falling beer consumption in Germany. So far, the beer sales have dropped relatively constant by two to three percent per year. “But this year we are experiencing a landslide,” said the Oettinger boss. “The market broke up by 7 to 7.5 percent,” said the newspaper manager. “The industry lost around 2.6 million hectoliters in Germany in the first half of 2025 alone, which corresponds to about three million cans a day.” he added.
Location closure in Braunschweig
After an annual ranking of the hop dealer Barthhaas, five out of six major German breweries produced less beer in 2024 than in the previous year, so the minus was particularly large at Oettinger. In the coming year, the company plans to hire its beer production in Braunschweig, one of four locations. “The decision on Braunschweig hurts extremely, the people there did an excellent job,” Blaschak told the newspaper. “But I know what will come and the company has to align in the long term.”
dpa
Source: Stern
