Heineken Romania closes brewery in Constanța due to overcapacity

Romania | Heineken, the number two brewer in Romania, will shutter the Constanta brewery in the second half of 2023. The plant, which once produced more than 700,000 hl beer, has been operating well below capacity for years. Production will be shifted to the three remaining breweries in the group.

Heineken has already closed three breweries in Reghin, Griviţa and Haţeg since entering the market in 2003 through the takeover of Austria’s Brau Union.

No mention of job losses

Media commentators were miffed that the announcement, on 20 September, was made in an impersonal press release, with no mention of how many jobs will be lost. Heineken employs more than 1,100 people in the country. The brewery in Constanta by the Black Sea has a history of more than 50 years and was seen as a landmark for the local brewing industry.

With three remaining breweries, Heineken operates as many large breweries as Ursus Breweries (Asahi), the beer market leader. Bergenbier (Molson Coors), ranked third, and United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (Israel’s CBC Group), ranked fourth, have one brewery each.

Beer prices among the lowest in Europe

The market is highly consolidated and fiercely competitive as beer prices must be among the lowest in Europe, especially for beer in large PET bottles. The unit price for 1 l beer in 2.5 l bottles is only USD 0.64.

The top four brewers account for over 95 percent of the turnover of RON 4.7 billion (USD 930 million) generated in this sector.

Heineken Romania ended 2021 with revenues of RON 1.37 billion (USD 280 million), up 9 percent over 2020, but profits decreased 19 percent to RON 118 million (USD 24 million), it was reported.

In terms of volumes sales, the four, plus Belgium’s Martens and craft brewers Clinica De Bere and Scorilo control 85 percent of domestic beer production. In 2021, beer production remained flat over 2020 at 16.6 million hl, or 86 litres per capita.

It once stood at nearly 20 million hl (2008).

There are more than 100 breweries in Romania, down from 125 in 1994, but up from only 26 in 2009, when the boom in microbreweries began.