Craft brewer Oppigards opens new brewery

In the village they call the brewery the “beer church” and, by the looks of the building with its arched windows, villagers are not far off the mark. Nor when it comes to size. It’s the largest structure in the village of Ingvallsbenning (50 permanent residents) in central Sweden. No doubt, the delivery trucks will have a fun time reaching the brewery which is 8 km away from the nearest town (Hedemora) and about 180 km from Stockholm.

For the husband and wife team Björn and Silvia Falkeström, who started the business over a decade ago, there was never a question of moving the brewery elsewhere. For one, Mr Falkeström’s family has owned a farm in this village for 300 years, for another, their first brewery is only a stone’s throw away from the new one.

So why invest SEK 35 million (USD 3.9 million) in a new brewery? The simple answer is: more capacity and greater flexibility. Oppigards will sell 19,000 hl beer this year and there was just no way to get this volume, spread over more than a dozen brands, out of the old plant without running into massive overtime with its 14-strong staff.

Plus Oppigards has to plan for future growth. Thanks to Sweden’s heavily regulated alcohol market, Oppigards has basically just one major customer, the country’s state-owned monopolist alcohol retailer Systembolaget with 431 stores across the country. Although Systembolaget does not regard itself as a retailer – it’s mandated to limit the harmful effects of alcohol – it still acts like one. If you have a listing with Systembolaget, says Mr Falkeström, you cannot be out of stock or you will get delisted.

Oppigards may be among the largest craft brewers in Sweden, but it still took the threat of delisting very seriously. Therefore, Mr Falkeström was left with no option but to plan and build a new brewery. The project probably ran over budget. But since Mr Falkeström is known for his very conservative investment policy – he is said to have taken on no or hardly any debt for his new brewery – this would not have fazed him too much.

The new brewery was officially opened on 15 October 2016, a few weeks after Mr Falkeström celebrated his 50th birthday. In order to legally serve his beer on this occasion, Oppigards had to classify its guests as tour groups. According to Swedish law, breweries can only serve alcohol on site if visitors or tour groups have registered with them in advance. In Sweden, microbrewers call this law, introduced a few years ago, an improvement over the previous regime which had banned the serving of alcohol to customers at cellar doors.