The heat and the soccer World Cup drove the German thirst for beer in 2018, but for the current year the industry expects a significant decline in sales. According to the Federal Statistical Office, beer sales fell by 2.5 percent to 85.2 million hectoliters by the end of November 2019.
In spite of a solid Christmas business, industry experts do not expect the minus to be made good by the end of December. "Even if the business developed positively in December, beer sales will probably drop by around two percent at the end of the year," says the managing director of the German Brewers Association, Holger Eichele.
As in all of Europe, beer consumption in Germany has been declining for years, especially due to the aging society. "After the very good summer of 2018, the not so bad summer of 2019 was not good enough to compensate for factors like demography," said the publisher of the industry magazine "Inside", Niklas Other.
Almost 7000 beer brands in Germany
"Nevertheless, the German brewers are optimistic about the new year, which can also feature an important sporting event with the European Football Championship," explains Eichele. "What will continue to grow in 2020 is the number of breweries in Germany and the number of beer brands that are approaching the 7000 mark." The most popular variety remains pilsner with a market share of more than 50 percent, but light beers and regional specialties grew.
Alcohol-free beers and non-alcoholic mixed beer beverages have also been increasingly popular for years and, according to Eichele, drive a market share of ten percent. They were not taken into account in the current statistics. However, industry insiders assume that the rising sales figures for non-alcoholic beverages could not make up for the decline in alcoholic beer in 2019.
"We are talking about over 2.2 million hectoliters," said the spokesman for the Veltins brewery, Ulrich Biene, referring to the drop in sales. "This is a large brewery, if you will." The company spokesman also believes that the industry will recover some of the hectoliters through the EM.
In August 2019 alone, beer sales dropped 11.4 percent year-on-year - the highest drop in sales of alcoholic beer in around three years. According to the latest data from the Federal Statistical Office, sales fell in November by 5.8 percent to 6.66 million hectoliters.
The year 2018 had ended a long downward trend, at that time the beer sales of the German breweries had increased minimally by 0.5 percent.
