Beverages: Beer prices are on the move

Consumers have to be prepared for higher prices for beer in supermarkets and beverage stores.

This is what industry observers are assuming, after a number of large brewers announced price increases well in advance for the first half of 2022 last autumn. “These are currently being implemented in retail and will certainly also become visible to consumers after Easter,” says market researcher Marcus Strobl from NielsenIQ. The important Easter business was fueled in many places in supermarkets and beverage stores with price campaigns, said Niklas Other, publisher of the magazine “Inside”.

It’s the first price hikes by the big brewers in four years, Other said. For example, Krombacher and Veltins increased their prices from the brewery ramp on April 1st. The Radeberger Group and Bitburger had announced that they would raise prices in May. The brewers generally did not give any figures. Other estimates that the beer crate with 20 half-litre bottles could be around 1 euro more expensive for large Pilsner brands. Retail is under more pressure than in previous years due to high logistics costs, among other things. Nevertheless, the “overdue” beer price increase should be moderate at less than ten percent of the normal price.

«Unfortunately, we are used to delivery bottlenecks and cost increases – the Corona crisis has already hit the brewing industry hard. But what is happening right now is beyond all dimensions: We are seeing unprecedented price increases for raw materials, packaging, energy and logistics,” says Holger Eichele, General Manager of the German Brewers’ Association. Especially for brewing malt and new glass, the purchase prices for new contracts and opening clauses in the contracts went through the roof. There is concern that the large retail groups, which are fixated on price campaigns, do not realize the difficult situation in which the breweries still find themselves.