Brewers look back on a successful year
After a preliminary review, the German Brewers Association reported on 12 January 2015 that beer sales in 2015 were slightly up on the previous year. The rise in sales was triggered by the stable consumer climate, a relatively short winter and the good weather in spring and early summer, especially during the Football World Cup. The German Brewers Association estimates that per capita beer consumption in 2014 (alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer) rose to 107 litres, the first increase in many years. Considering that 2014 also saw a beer price increase, the result is even more impressive. Now German brewers worry that 2015 may prove tough going.
Beer exports made an important contribution, especially to China and the United States, as did the sales of non-alcoholic beers. “Output of non-alcoholic beers will have passed the 5 million hl mark in 2014” said the Holger Eichele, the Chief Executive of the German Brewers Association.
Among Germany’s top ranking beer brands with sales over one million hl, six brands registered volume losses in 2014, most prominently among them the cheap beer brand Oettinger, which has been in decline for a decade, and may lose its title to Krombacher this year. Despite an industry-wide price hike in February 2014, German brewers kept to their bad habit of running frequent price promotions, which saw the gap between Oettinger and a “better beer” shrink to about EUR 2 per crate of 10 litres beer – or near- insignificance. In many cases this made punters chose the slightly more expensive beer instead.
Among the super-losers was also Warsteiner, a brand which has experienced shrinking sales for nearly twenty years. The price hike did not do Warsteiner any good and the brand saw its sales tumble over 10 percent in the first half.
Among last year’s winners were the three top ranking wheat beer brands: Paulaner, Erdinger and Franziskaner (AB-InBev). Sales of Beck’s (AB-InBev) also went up last year but mostly because AB-InBev allowed the retailers to sell it at very special offers (under EUR 10 per crate of 10 litres).
