The parent company of the beer brand Bavaria wants its beer to no longer be sold in Russia and therefore wants to get rid of its license agreement with the Moscow Brewing Company. Swinkels Family Brewers, as the company from Lieshout in North Brabant is called, says it is in talks with the Russians about terminating the contract.
Major brewers such as AB InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg previously announced that they would leave the Russian market. The situation is different for Swinkels. The brewer does not have its own brewery in the country and therefore no staff. A withdrawal from the country is therefore not formally on the agenda, a spokesperson confirms after reporting by Broadcasting Brabant.
The agreement with Moscow Brewing Company gave that Russian brewer the right to brew lager under the name Bavaria. The deal has so far been respected by Swinkels, and the company has come under criticism for this. According to critics, the brewer had to make more active efforts to ensure that its beer would no longer be for sale in Russia.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company from Brabant already stopped deliveries to Russia until further notice. The financial transactions with the country were also on the shovel.
“We continue to adhere to the sanctions policy of the European Union and contribute through various donations to aid for Ukrainian refugees and the Ukrainian people. We have also been able to offer work to Ukrainian refugees in our company,” Swinkels said in a statement.
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