E-Malt.com News article: The Czech Republic: Volume of sold bottled beer prevails over tapped beer in 2012

The high popularity of tapped beer, typical of Czechs, is gone now that the volume of sold bottled beer prevailed over the tapped beer drunk in pubs for the first time in 2012, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reported on September 16.

In this respect, Czechs are starting to follow the habits of their western neighbours, it writes.

In Germany, one in five sold beers is drunk in a pub, while in the Czech Republic, still in 2011 people drank less beer from bottles or cans than what they consumed in pubs, MfD writes.

Now the situation is markedly changing. Of all the beer sold last year, 44.3 percent was sold in bottles, 43.4 in kegs and the rest in cans or tanks, the paper continues.

As a result, the number of restaurants and beer pubs is declining, it says.

"This change has been underway in the past ten years. The trend accelerated last year, however. I think the main reason is money saving and the tax increase that drew money out from people's pockets. A number of analyses we have had worked out show that beer consumption has transferred to people's homes," says Doug Bradman, outgoing head of the Plzensky Prazdroj brewery.

Beer consumption in the Czech Republic rose by one percent last year, but the sale of kegged beer dropped by more than 5 percent to the lowest ever level, MfD writes.

"There are more reasons behind this trend. One of them is definitely the [economic] crisis, but also a change in the life style when people do not have so much leisure time," the paper quotes Vladimir Balach, executive director of the Czech Breweries Association, as saying.

The main reason is often the price difference. While the price of a half-litre of tapped 12 grade beer has crossed 30 crowns, a bottle of the same volume costs about 20 crowns.

Breweries themselves sell kegged beer for higher prices than bottled and they draw a markedly bigger profit from it, MfD writes.

Bradman said retail chains press beer prices as low as possible to attract customers. Breweries, in line with the rising popularity of bottled beer, have started to offer beer in bigger plastic bottles or small kegs that fit in a fridge.

On the other hand, there are pubs and hotels that have established their own mini-breweries. Their number has been rising, with another 30 mushrooming this year alone, the paper writes.

With their production making up some one percent of the country's total beer production, the mini-breweries do not threaten the big players, however, the daily says.


17 September, 2013