Brewer Radeberger attacked by environmentalists for dodging deposits on Corona bottles
Deutsche Umwelthilfe, an environmental pressure group, on 4 July 2012 took on Radeberger, Germany’s major brewer and Corona Extra importer, over allegedly not shipping empty Corona bottles back to Mexico for them to be refilled, despite charging German consumers a deposit of EUR 0.08 per bottle for doing just this. Had Radeberger declared the Corona bottles to be non-refillable, which Deutsche Umwelthilfe suspects they really are, the brewer would have had to charge consumers a higher deposit of EUR 0.25 per bottle.
Germany’s environmental legislation frowns upon non-refillable beverage containers and levies a deposit of EUR 0.25 on those bottles which are not returned to their source to be refilled. Deutsche Umwelthilfe claims that Radeberger has misled consumers over the bottles’ ultimate destination – the bin rather than Modelo’s filling hall – thus securing itself a lower retail price (about EUR 4 per crate).
Deutsche Umwelthilfe has called upon the Ministry for the Environment in Hesse, Germany’s federal state where Radeberger is headquartered, to slap the brewer with a fine.
Actually, many in the industry have wondered for years if Radeberger, which sells about 45,000 hl of Corona Extra in Germany annually, really ships all Corona empties back to Mexico, as this would be neither cheap nor environmentally sound.
Radeberger vehemently refuted the allegations and submitted evidence to the contrary. It said that all Corona empties are freighted to Amsterdam from where they are shipped back to Mexico.
Radeberger admitted, though, that the empties from Germany don’t come back to Germany after being refilled. Instead, these bottles re-appear in other markets as Grupo Modelo only wants to sell new bottles in Germany to emphasise the brand’s premium image.
Should Deutsche Umwelthilfe take Radeberger to the courts, lawyers will have a field day determining if Radeberger’s and Modelo’s practice is in keeping with the German law or not.
But this might be Radeberger’s lesser worry. Its executives are more concerned if their import arrangement with Modelo has any future once AB-InBev has Modelo firmly under its control. It is feared that AB-InBev may award the Corona licence to its German subsidiary, which owns Beck’s and a host of other brands.
