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Beer bottles in the bottling plant: Fear of financial difficulties
Photo: Johannes Simon/ Getty Images
The upcoming final accounting of the Corona aid is apparently causing difficulties for a number of breweries.
As in all sectors, companies must submit the relevant documents to the authorities by June 30th and then repay any overpaid support.
"In view of the multi-permanent crisis, the reviews for the companies come at the worst possible time," said Jürgen Erbe, specialist lawyer for insolvency law at the law firm Schultze & Braun, the SPIEGEL.
This will put small and medium-sized breweries in particular in financial difficulties and increase the number of insolvencies, says Erbe.
“A corona aid sword of Damocles, sometimes worth millions, hangs over many a company.” He calls for a pragmatic solution, such as a deferral of repayments.
So far, state aid has kept insolvencies at a stable level.
According to an evaluation by the data service provider STP, between 2018 and 2022 around half a dozen breweries filed for bankruptcy.
Breweries are struggling with falling sales and high prices for energy, raw materials and primary products.
The German Brewers' Association (DBB) has named the following increases:
Bottle cap
prices
have more than doubled.
According to the federal association, carbonic acid
cost 90 percent more in November than a year earlier.
For
labels
, the surcharge is 30 percent,
35 percent
for
hops
and
90 percent for
brewing malt .
The price of new glass for
bottles
has risen by 70 percent.
In addition, there would be higher costs for personnel and logistics.
The lobby association has therefore already predicted price increases for beer.
He expects that the costs will remain at a high level in 2023 and in some cases will continue to rise.
For the months of January to November 2022, the German brewing industry reported an increase in sales of 3.2 percent to 81.2 million hectoliters of beer (excluding non-alcoholic varieties).
However, this is only a positive signal at first glance, because in the pre-Corona year 2019, beer sales in the same period were 85.2 million hectoliters, it said.
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