Cost pressure on the brewing industry leads to an unusual alliance: On November 14, 2022, Warsteiner Brauerei Haus Cramer KG, Warstein and Karlsberg Holding GmbH, Homburg, registered the formation of a jointly controlled joint purchasing company (Az B4-137/22). This was announced by the Federal Cartel Office in Bonn. Both owner-managed companies have struggled with loss of sales for years. Given the market importance of both breweries, the Bonn supervisory authority is unlikely to raise any objections to the Saarland-Sauerland alliance.
The supply industry is looking forward to the new company
From now on, Karlsberg and Warsteiner want to get closer to purchasing by founding a joint purchasing company. According to the Bundeskartellamt, it initially has one month to examine the merger (the so-called “first phase”). If the proposed merger proves unproblematic, the Decision Making Division informally approves the merger before the end of the one-month period. So nothing stands in the way of starting the joint purchasing company: The supplier industry of the brewing industry should watch the realignment with interest. From a market point of view, however, this alliance does not pose any problems, as there are no relevant overlaps in the markets of the Saarland and Sauerland breweries.
In 2010 Christian Weber succeeded his father Dr. Richard Weber, who was also president of the German brewery for many years. In the annual report for 2011, the company issued the “Strategy 2020”, according to which annual sales growth of three to five percent should be achieved with a desired return on sales of approximately eight percent. Indeed, cost pressures are now likely to weigh heavily on the Saarland brewery. The company has a strong regional presence with the traditional range of varieties under the Karlsberg brand, but there is hardly any growth prospects outside the central region through a distribution expansion. With Mixery, on the other hand, the company helped shape the beer beverage segment at an early stage and was even able to make a name for itself nationwide.
Karlsberg’s first alliance with BHI collapsed in 2009
The idea of the alliance in Karlsberg is not new: At the turn of the millennium, the then owner Dr. Richard Weber reacted to the internationalization trend of the German brewing industry and in 2003 allowed Bavarian Brauholding International (BHI ) to acquire a 45% stake in the Saarlander’s German beer business. But the cooperation with the joint venture of the Schörghuber Group (50.1%) and Heineken (49.9%) from the Netherlands collapsed in 2009. Since then, all shares have fully reverted to family ownership.
In 2021, the Homburg Karlsberg brewery made headlines because, according to the authorities, the company was allegedly defrauded with false invoices. At the time, police, tax investigators and the prosecutor’s office were looking for evidence at the headquarters of the Homburg Karlsberg Group and at Karlsberg holding Niehoff’s Vaihinger in Lauterecken that the company had been defrauded by false and fictitious shipping invoices for years. According to the Kaiserslautern public prosecutor’s office, Karlsberg was damaged to the tune of millions.
Warsteiner austerity measures already in the personnel budget
The Warsteiner brewery has also experienced turmoil since the turn of the millennium, had to cede its long-standing market leadership position to its main competitor Krombacher and lost around two-thirds of the production at the time at its headquarters alone, which at its peak it amounted to more than six million hectoliters for the Warsteiner brand alone. Catharina Cramer has supported her father Albert Cramer as managing partner since 2007 and subsequently assumed sole management; however, a return to success should not occur.
On the contrary, new management changes have led to imbalances. More recently, Helmut Hörz took over as CEO and Uwe Alberhardt as Managing Director Marketing/Sales. Personnel savings were the result when the Warsteiner brewery terminated the collective agreement of the Sauerland and Siegerland breweries, thus burdening the employees with financial losses.
