Bavaria changes name to Swinkels Family Brewers
The Dutch brewing group Bavaria has changed its name to Swinkels Family Brewers to better reflect its product range, the family-owned firm said. “We are more than Bavaria”, Chairman Jan-Renier Swinkels said. Next year Swinkels will celebrate its 300th anniversary.
Swinkels Family Breweries is the holding company for a number of businesses, including brewers Bavaria and Palm plus Holland Malt. It runs five breweries: two in The Netherlands (Lieshout, Berkel-Enschot), as well as two in Belgium (Steenhuffel, Roeselare) and one in Ethiopia (Debre Birhan). The brewery also has a close partnership (a 35 percent stake) with the de Molen craft brewery in Bodegraven, near Amsterdam, which was founded in 2004 and produced around 10,000 hl beer in 2017.
The group’s 26 brands of beer include Palm, Hollandia and Steenbrugge as well as Bavaria and Swinkels, and Habesha from Ethiopia.
In 2017, group net sales were EUR 659 million (USD 768 million), up 6.5 percent compared to 2016. Operating profits (EBIT) dropped to EUR 41.1 million (USD 48 million) from EUR 45.8 million, partly due to substantial investments and an increase in costs.
