Gaffel brewery’s owners fight like Cain and Abel in the courts
In the carnival-mad city of Cologne revellers usually fall into a deep depression with the onset of Lent. Thanks to the on-going and highly publicised spat between the brothers Heinrich and Johannes Becker for control of the Gaffel brewery it’s now carnival all year round.
When the brothers, who are in their sixties, inherited the brewery from their father in 1972, everything seemed to be fine. Both got an equal stake in the brewery with clearly demarcated responsibilities and duties.
No one can remember when things turned sour at Gaffel or even why the brothers fell out with each other. In any case, their private quarrels turned public after Johannes was expelled from the board of management in 2006 and dragged Heinrich to court over this.
Since then they have seen each other mostly in court. To date, over a dozen lawsuits have been filed by one or the other. While local media get enormous mileage out of their quarrel, comparing it to that between Cain and Abel, judges seem to have grown rather tired of having to deal with the Beckers. One judge actually told them to pull themselves together and sort this out pronto.
However, last year matters came to head when Heinrich Becker accused his brother of having acted as the whistle-blower to Germany’s competition watchdogs, which began investigating five Kölsch brewers in late 2011, Gaffel among them, over allegations that they ran a beer cartel. Johannes Becker, on the other hand, scored a small victory when a judge threw out Heinrich’s suit to have Johannes Becker expelled from the group of shareholders. Johannes controls about 38 percent of Gaffel, his brother’s family 62 percent.
Johannes also filed a suit to have the company which owns the Gaffel brewery dissolved. The court is expected to cast its verdict some time this year. If the Gaffel brewery were auctioned off, Heinrich might be able to buy it back. But the auction would be open to third-party bidders too, including rival Pils brewers.
Hopefully reason wins in the end.
Currently, nine breweries produce Kölsch in and around Cologne. Only the signatories to the Kölsch Convention may brew Kölsch. The Gaffel brewery, though not the biggest one in terms of output, probably enjoys the widest brand recognition in Germany. It allegedly sold 400,000 hl of Kölsch in 2012 plus about 80,000 hl of keg soda. Gaffel did not report on 2012 revenues, which stood at EUR 52 million in 2011.
