Czech breweries expect year-round declines in sales in the order of tens of percent. The largest manufacturers expect a decline between 20 and 40 percent, the smallest by more than 50 percent. This was stated by the Czech Association of Breweries and Malthouses. A survey of beer producers in late October found that a third, mainly large producers, were considering layoffs.
“Sales of draft beer decreased by 20 percent in the first nine months of the year, we expect the decline to deepen to at least 30 percent by the end of the year. Detailed figures will be published at the end of the year. Generally speaking, we also have a decline in exports; , but it can in no way compensate for the declines in on-trade and exports, “said Martina Ferencová, the union’s executive director. Off-trade means sale in closed packaging such as bottles or cans, on-trade is the sale of tapped beer in restaurants.
In the survey, 90 respondents representing malt houses and breweries of all sizes answered, representatives of the association said.
The Svijany Brewery, which is the largest in the Liberec Region and one of the largest in the country, is not yet considering layoffs. “We are a very efficient company in terms of the number of employees per unit of production, because for the last 20 years we have mostly faced a shortage of workers in the region from which they leave for often more attractive job opportunities in Liberec or Mladá Boleslav. we can weigh and consider them as one of our main assets. This crisis will certainly end sooner or later. If the situation does not deteriorate dramatically, we will try to keep them all, “said the director of the brewery, Roman Havlík. At the end of last year, the company employed 180 people.
Primátor Náchod Brewery expects a year-round drop in sales of about 30 percent. It will also depend on how the end of the year develops, Petr Kaluža, the brewery’s director, told ČTK. Primátor Brewery is the largest brewery in the Hradec Králové region and is known as a producer of specialty beers. He does not plan to lay off employees.
“We are not going to be fired at the moment due to coronavirus and related measures,” said Budweiser Budvar spokeswoman Markéta Ježková.
According to the union, breweries do not want to borrow more, only about one in ten companies are considering using the COVID III loan program. “Most often, in more than two-thirds of cases, breweries want to use the Antivirus program to cover part of their wage costs. 42.5 percent of respondents plan to use the deferral of VAT payments, income tax advances and road tax until the end of 2020. will be used by more than a third of companies, especially from the ranks of larger breweries, “the association added.
Already at the beginning of November, the union announced that it was negotiating with the Ministry of Agriculture about possible compensations. Breweries lose hundreds of millions of crowns every month due to closed gastronomic operations. Even with the optimistic scenario, pubs and restaurants will not open until the end of November, so they will be closed for at least a third of the year this year, the union said earlier. He also wants to start discussing changes with the Ministry of Finance so that breweries may not have to pay excise duty on liquidated beer next year.
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We have already saved millions of beers, we estimate that for 200 million crowns. After the winter, most mini-breweries welded to the ceiling, and then it was over from day to day. | Video: DVTV, Emma Smetana
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