Last year better for beer, brewer says

Luxembourg's biggest brewery saw a financial rebound in 2021, but drinkers still spent less than they did before the pandemic, Brasserie Nationale said.

The company behind the Bofferding, Battin and Funck-Bricher beers, Lodyss bottled water and alcoholic drinks distributor Munhowen said it collected €65.5 million in revenues last year, up almost 6% from 2020.

The privately owned beer-maker said its core profit tripled last year, topping €7.5 million, though that was still below the €9.9 million mark of 2019.

Events last year conspired to batter drinks sales, the company said. Restaurants and bars were closed for more than three months at the start of 2021 during the pandemic lockdown. When they reopened in stages, floods in July and cold temperatures in August made terraces less appealing.

After that, the Omicron wave of the coronavirus kept bar and restaurant patrons at home from mid-November, the company said.

Brasserie Nationale is Luxembourg's largest brewer, but claims only a tiny fraction - well below 1% - of the global beer market, which is dominated by Belgium's ABInvev's 30% share and Heineken of the Netherlands' 13%.

In its home market, the company claims a 26% share, followed by the maker of Diekirch beers, Brasserie de Luxembourg and its 11%. Imported beers make up 55% of sales in Luxembourg, Brasserie Nationale said.

Brasserie Nationale was founded in 1975 by the merger of the Bofferding brewery founded in Bascharage in 1842 and the Funck-Bricher brewery that dated from 1764 in the Grund district of Luxembourg City.