Ireland: Polish beers sales feeling the crisis as Poles leave Ireland

With the collapse of the Irish property market forcing thousands of Poles out of jobs, sales of some Polish beer brands have slumped by as much as 60 per cent in recent months, the Independent cited data by Irish beer suppliers and importers on December, 14.

Dublin firm Fourcorners, which imports Tyskie, one of the most popular Polish beers, and Lech, has seen a 10 per cent fall in Polish beer sales over the last six months.

"As people decide to return to Poland due to redundancies here, and the ability to get possibly more secure jobs in Poland right now, there is a decline in [Polish] beer sales," said Paul Maher, managing director of Fourcorners.

Dean McGuinness, managing director of Premier International Beers, said that sales growth of Polish beer "seems to have levelled off".

Sales of Premier's Polish beers are now growing at about the third the rate they grew by between 2006 and 2007, he said.

Sales of Tesco's Polish beer cans are down 15 per cent, although its bottle sales are up about 10 per cent. Musgrave said it saw a drop in sales of Tyskie and Lech last summer but growth had picked up since September.

A third of Polish workers in Ireland may return home over the next year, according to recruitment firm CPL.

16 December, 2008