Germany’s Warsteiner shutters one brewery, hopes to sell another

Germany | The Haus Cramer Group, owner of Warsteiner brewery, is responding to the crisis in the German beer market by significantly trimming back its brewing capacity, media reported on 7 May. As part of the plan, the Herford brewery will close in August, while the group is seeking a buyer for its brewery in Paderborn.

Failing that, operations there will cease at the end of 2026. A total of 211 employees are affected by the measures. The company aims to retain some of the employees at its brewery in Warstein, which is to become the group’s production and logistics hub.

With this move, one of Germany’s major brewers is responding to a worrying market trend: Per capita beer consumption has declined to 88 litres in 2025, from 125 litres in 2000. Last year, sales of Warsteiner beer dropped nearly 8 percent year-on-year to 1.8 million hl, estimates Inside, a trade publication. Thirty years ago, Warsteiner brewed 6 million hl beer per year.

The decisions affecting the Herford and Paderborn breweries mark a reversal of previously announced investment policies. It was only in 2024 that the group spent reportedly EUR 20 million (USD 24 million) on a new bottling line for its Herford brewery, although the plant’s output is only 400,000 hl annually. In 2023, it allegedly invested EUR 11 million in the Paderborn brewery to hike production capacity to 1.25 million hl.

Haus Cramer Group is also losing its Managing Director of Technology, Jens Hoffmann. He is moving to Bitburger Brewing Group, where he will take on a similar position, succeeding Jan Niewodniczanski, who stepped down from the management board of the privately-owned Bitburger Group in September 2025.