Krombacher was able to sell less beer in 2021. But thanks to strong sales of soft drinks, the brewery is doing well.
Thanks to a higher demand for lemonades and other non-alcoholic beverages, Germany’s largest private brewery Krombacher has weathered the consequences of the Corona crisis relatively well.
The output of the various Krombacher varieties fell last year by 2.3 percent to a total of 5.56 million hectoliters, as the company announced on Wednesday in Kreuztal-Krombach. But because the separately managed soft drinks with the brands Schweppes, Orangina and Dr. Pepper was able to increase 5 percent, the total output of the group weakened only by 0.9 percent to 7.34 million hectoliters.
Major events and beer sales
Group sales fell by 0.5 percent to 824.3 million euros. As usual, the company with around 1000 employees did not provide any information on profits. Head of Marketing Uwe Riehs spoke of a “satisfactory financial year” that had been achieved despite the adverse circumstances. The beer industry is under pressure in Corona times because there are no major events and people are generally less on the go to meet friends in pubs or restaurants.
Krombacher has held the distribution rights for Schweppes products in Germany and Austria since 2006. The company also sells Vitamalz and Fassbrause lemonades. Non-alcoholic beverages are becoming more and more important for the brewery group, their share of the total output rose in the past year according to the information from about 34 to 38 percent. Sugar-free zero variants were a growth driver.
With a view to the 2022 financial year, the boardroom is exercising optimism. “We expect a challenging environment for the first half of the year, but we are going into the coming year with confidence,” said Head of Marketing Riehs, justifying this, among other things, with the wide range of products. (dpa)