Carlsberg and Brooklyn to establish a brewery in Klaipeda
For over a year there has been a persistent rumour that Carlsberg, in tow with Brooklyn Brewery, would establish some sort of presence in the Baltic country of Lithuania. On 11 July 2017 Carlsberg confirmed that it will invest about EUR five million (USD 5.7 million) in a line of new exclusive beers in Klaipeda, home of its Svyturys brewery.
Dainius Smailys, corporate director at Svyturys-Utenos Alus, was quoted as saying that Carlsberg and Brooklyn Brewery would become shareholders of a new company that will take over part of the current Svyturys-Utenos Alus plant. Svyturys-Utenos Alus is Lithuania’s beer market leader with a 35 percent share and controlled by Carlsberg.
“A new company will be set up to become the operator of a new brewery and related businesses, namely, a restaurant, a beer knowledge centre, etc. (…) At the new company, Carlsberg and Brooklyn Brewery will hold about an equal number of shares,” he said.
The brewery’s capacity will reportedly be about 20,000 hl per year and will launch at the end of 2017.
This is the first investment by Brooklyn Brewery in eastern Europe and represents its latest brewery collaboration with Carlsberg. The two already operate the E.C. Dahls brewery in Trondheim, Norway (since 2016), and the New Carnegie Brewery in Stockholm, Sweden (since 2012). Carlsberg also distributes Brooklyn Brewery’s products in many of the markets in which it operates.
Klaipeda, a town on the Baltic Sea, has been the home of the Svyturys Brewery since the 18th century. Carlsberg first bought into the Lithuanian market in 1999. The country has over 70 breweries, whose beer production combined has hovered around the three million hl mark since 2010, according to data by the Brewers of Europe. 613,000 hl beer were exported in 2015.
The country of 2.8 million people is a member of the European Union. It recently hit the news as being among the countries with the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in Europe, according to the World Health Organisation.
In an effort to address alcohol abuse, the Lithuanian government plans to increase the legal drinking age from age from 18 to 20 and ban alcohol advertising from January 2018.
