Warsteiner says bye-bye to all that

There’s only a thin line between high hopes and heartbreak. Having already sold its brewery to SABMiller in November 2010 for an estimated USD 45 million (EUR 30 million), Germany’s brewer Warsteiner has now disposed of its wine company Casa Orfila in Mendoza. In April 2011 Warsteiner clinched a deal with the local beverage company Cepas Argentinas SA for an undisclosed sum.

The deal marks the completion of Warsteiner’s exit from Argentina – a market it entered in the mid 1990s with the construction of a one-million-hl-brewery near Buenos Aires and the purchase of the wine brand “Suc. Abel Michel Torino“ in 2005.

Despite Warsteiner’s wild optimism and deep pockets, Argentina proved a tough market to crack. Market observers think that its beer investments never turned profitable, while CASA Orfila with a market share of 3.5 percent proved too small to have any impact.

Warsteiner said Orfila’s turnover in 2010 was EUR 27 million with 300,000 hl of wine sold.