Heineken buys into Amsterdam craft brewer Oedipus

The Netherlands – Dutch market leader Heineken has acquired a minority stake in the craft brewer Oedipus, the two companies announced on 4 June 2019. Specific details about the deal were not disclosed.

Oedipus was established in an Amsterdam kitchen in 2011 by four friends. In 2015 the company joined a growing number of urban craft breweries (45 by the latest count) when it opened a brewery and taproom in the northern part of the city.

Oedipus’ sales are estimated at around 10,000 hl beer. The firm is doing particularly well in and around Amsterdam and especially among millennials and hipsters. Heineken probably wants to get access to these groups but at the same time the responses to the deal on social networks were fairly negative, observers say.

In the official announcement, it was pointed out that Oedipus will remain an independent brewery, with its founders continuing to run the business, while benefitting from access to Heineken’s distribution network. However, the next day one of the original owners said he would quit from Oedipus, so maybe more was going on behind the scenes.

Whether Oedipus can remain a member of CRAFT, the organisation representing more than 170 independent Dutch craft brewers, also remains to be seen. It mainly depends on the size of Heineken’s stake.

According to CRAFT, membership requires that less than 25 percent of the shares in the brewery are owned or controlled (or represent a similar economic interest) by a producer of alcoholic beverages that is not itself an independent brewery.

In the Netherlands, 12 million hl beer are consumed each year. Per capita consumption of beer is 70 litres. The market is dominated by brewers Heineken, AB-InBev, Bavaria and Grolsch. There are an estimated 680 breweries, including virtual breweries, in the country, up from 300 at the end of 2014. Nevertheless, the market appears to have reached saturation. Specialty beers will continue to hike sales, but the number of breweries is expected to decrease.