From strength to strength

With a spectacular closing act, BrauBeviale took its well-deserved break for two years after three successful exhibition days and will be back again with fresh ideas in 2018. Almost 38,000 trade visitors, including more than 16,000 international guests, went home with in-depth information from the most important capital goods exhibition for the beverage industry in 2016. The 1117 exhibitors included regulars and newcomers, world market leaders and medium-sized companies.

“Those were the most successful three days’ exhibition in the history of BrauBeviale”; Andrea Kalrait, event manageress, declared proudly on the last day of the exhibition on seeing the attendance figures. “We were able to not just increase area and internationality, but also the number of visitors.” Exhibitors came from 52 countries, mainly from Germany (586), Italy, the UK; the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, from Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.

The trade visitors gave top marks to the supporting programme. The first Export Forum German Beer that took place on the day before the official opening was an immediate success, as was the MicroBrew Symposium.

European Beer Star

Before the exhibition, more than 120 experts judged 2103 beers from all continents, submitted under 57 categories of Europe’s largest beer competition. The best beers of the world awarded gold medals had been tasted by several thousand trade visitors on the first exhibition day, selecting their Consumers’ Favourite 2016: Gold for the Belgian-Style Witbier from MC77-Birrificio Artigianale brewery from Italy. The silver medal went to Long Sun Brewing, Taiwan, for their amber-coloured wheat beer. Trade visitors voted the dark Weizenbock from Kronenbrauerei Alfred Schimpf, Germany into third place. The list of all winners of the European Beer Stars 2016, as well as the contact details of the breweries, photos and graphs can be downloaded under

www.european-beer-star.de.

Market situation

Gerhard Ilgenfritz, President of the Association of Private Breweries in Bavaria, Germany focused on the market situation at the opening event: world-wide beer output dropped by 1.6 per cent last year, also due to the significant decrease on the Chinese market. Just under 96 million hl of beer were produced in Germany in 2015, German beer sales benefitted in 2016 from the 500th anniversary of the German “Reinheitsgebot”. Though such an anniversary does not come round often, Ilgenfritz continued, the industry is looking optimistically to the future. He also took the opportunity of pointing out that breweries should not sell their products for less than fair value, in particular against the backdrop of rising raw material prices and capital expenditure.

BrauBeviale is “a demonstration of strength and a most important indicator for the sector” for manufacturers of production and packaging equipment. This was emphasised by Richard Clemens, Director of the VDMA Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association, Germany. Consumption of packaged beverages has risen worldwide by some 37 per cent in the last ten years. An enormous growth potential for equipment manufacturers. Clemens comments that “flexibility and individuality” are buzzwords for the sector. Industry 4.0, automation, pro-active maintenance are central topics for suppliers. Clemens also lobbied media representatives for the controversial Free Trade Agreements CETA and TTIP because uniform regulations result in significantly higher competitiveness for an industry that is heavily relying on exports.