Radeberger considers closing its Frankfurt brewery

Radeberger, Germany’s largest privately owned brewing group with 15 breweries in Germany, is building a EUR 20 million brewery in Nuremberg/Fürth. Meanwhile the Frankfurt brewery site is threatened with closure.

As part of Radeberger’s takeover of Germany’s Brau + Brunnen brewing group a few years back, Radeberger, owned by the Oetker family, acquired the Tucher brands but not the brewery site in Nuremberg/Fürth. That’s why it became necessary for Radeberger to invest more than EUR 20 million in the construction of a brewery in Nuremberg.

Meanwhile, investments at Radeberger’s Frankfurt headquarters came to a halt because the brewer fears that an ever more encroaching residential construction boom and ensuing reductions in noise levels will prevent it from continuing production eventually. Radeberger may have no problem in finding free capacity elsewhere in the group for its Schöfferhofer and Clausthaler beer brands. However, its image as a Frankfurt brewer and - even more so - the sales of its Henninger and Binding brands will suffer if production was shifted to another city.