Publicans up in arms against Carlsberg
The Basle publicans' association has stepped up its campaign against Carlsberg: miffed that they are charged what they consider rip-off prices for locally produced Carlsberg beer and Coca-Cola products, the association decided to self-import these beverages from neighbouring countries where they are much cheaper. On 30 May 2012 they held their first ex-works sale of 100,000 bottles of Carlsberg and Coca-Cola to local restaurateurs. They sold them at a discount of 51 percent and 57 percent respectively to locally available produce.
Carlsberg, which owns the local Feldschlösschen brewery, is Switzerland's major brewer. The association says Carlsberg is abusing its market position. After Carlsberg's latest beer price hike, the publicans responded in kind by lodging a complaint with the Swiss competition authorities, Weko, against Feldschlösschen. That was in February 2012 (see our Swiss beer market report in BRAUWELT International 2/2012).
Weko will examine whether Carlsberg's behaviour violates Swiss competition laws and may make recommendations, if they get the impression that competition is seriously undermined. The Basle publicans hope that Weko will eventually tell Carlsberg in no uncertain terms to stick to codes of conduct when signing supply contracts with the on-trade. Supply contracts are another bone of contention between Carlsberg and the publicans, as the terms vary from pub to pub.
The Basle publicans' association told BRAUWELT that they have not heard from Weko since filing their complaint. What they have been told is that Weko is currently conducting a "market observation" which is a preliminary investigation. They still expect to get a ruling from Weko within the next few months.
With their ex-works sale, the publicans have increased the pressure on the beverage producers and distributors to review their wholesale prices downwards. The publicans argue that there is no reason why cheaper Carlsberg beer or Red Bull, produced elsewhere in Europe, should not be sold in Switzerland, just because the labels vary somewhat.
The association is adamant that their ex-works sale will not be a one-off event. They plan to have them more frequently and not just near Basle (which borders with Germany) but all over Switzerland. The volumes sold ex-works may be small and they will not really hurt Carlsberg much. But the publicans will not let up. "We are convinced that it needs more parallel imports to force the beer and soft drink multinationals to rethink their pricing policy, " Maurus Ebneter, the spokesperson for the Basle publicans' association told BRAUWELT.
