Europe’s brewers spend EUR 1 billion per year to support community events

Brewers know only too well that governments like to bite the hand that feeds them. Skyrocketing taxes on beer in some European countries is a case in point. The Brewers of Europe, fortunately, never tire of telling politicians that by providing over EUR 57 billion in taxes to European governments and directly and indirectly employing over 2.5 million people, the brewing sector is a large contributor to the European economy and that any tinkering with taxation will put lots of companies and jobs at risk.

In a recent research note (published in May 2011), the Brewers of Europe argue that thousands of public events across Europe depend heavily on sponsorships by European brewers and could be in danger amid ongoing scrutiny of such financial support that totals nearly EUR 1 billion annually.

While major high-profile sports sponsorships grab the headlines, say the Brewers of Europe, 62 percent of brewer-supported events take place at local and regional level.

“At a time of deep public budget cuts as a result of the economic crisis, community events need support more than ever from the private sector including brewers, who have played an important social, cultural and economic role in Europe for centuries”, said Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, Secretary General of The Brewers of Europe, an organisation that represents the EU’s 3,300 brewers.

The EUR 928 million funds a broad range of activities including the arts, culture, innovation and science as well as sport, sometimes even without explicit reference to the brewer sponsor, the study said. This is in addition to the better-known social responsibility activities such as anti-drink-driving-campaigns that Europe’s brewers have run for decades.

Welcoming the report, Séan Kelly, an Irish MEP, said: “In a time of economic austerity, the support given through sponsorship by the various brewers can help rebuild the people’s morale and wellbeing. This is important for the health of Europe’s social market economy. The brewers continue to take their social responsibility seriously, something which I welcome.”

Community involvement by brewers is about many small actions involving relatively small amounts of money. Taking out the major deals, the average spend is just EUR 8,544, with 36 percent of activities being local and 48 percent regional.

In a survey, the study found that only 11 percent of the public think that it would be easy to replace brewery sponsorship of an event.

The report “Supporting local communities: assessing the contribution of Europe’s brewers” can be downloaded at www.brewersofeurope.org