Warsteiner Brewery on downward slope

Germany | Warsteiner Brewery reported a 9.1 percent decline in domestic sales in the first half of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, when the company had already recorded a decline of 16.4 percent. The brewery did not provide any volume figures. However, observers estimate that sales have dropped to below 900,000 hl beer in the first half of 2021. Warsteiner ranked 7th among Germany’s major beer brands in 2020.

The fact is: in its home market Warsteiner performed significantly worse than the German brewing industry as a whole (-4.9 percent).

It is strange that Warsteiner’s press release came with the headline “stable sales despite prolonged lockdown”. Although the brewery hiked its export volumes by 28.9 percent, which led to a decline of only 1.4 percent over 2020, it omitted to say that in the first half of 2020 they were down 15.2 percent over 2019. Overall, German breweries improved their export sales in the first half of 2021.

Warsteiner Brewery: beer sales 1994-2020 (million hl)

Source: company reports and Inside Getränke