On Wednesday, the major manufacturers agreed to come back to the table to consider price cuts by the end of May. But not everyone is ready for it yet. Starting with brewers who don’t want to renegotiate their prices with big box retailers at this stage:
“Each company will see according to its own commercial policy. But in general there is a gap. The energy contracts were signed at the end of 2022. We had a gap with the negotiations that were delayed and so today we have a lot of brewery failures only one figure: between January and March, we had 30 brewery failures, compared to 15 for all of 2022,” Magali Filhue, general delegate of the Brasseurs de France union, told BFM Business.
In a press release published this Tuesday, the breweries were already warning about the skyrocketing of their production costs, from glass to energy, and they regretted that the Government “throws opprobrium” at manufacturers asking them to make efforts on prices.
“When we heard that we would not play the game, it generates a total misunderstanding on our part,” reacted Magali Filhue, who considered that the sector “had never faced such difficulties.” While the price of glass, raw materials (barley, hops) or even energy “continue at very high levels” for the association’s 2,500 breweries, as well as for other manufacturers, Magali Filhue lamented that the minister “throws opprobrium to the entire agricultural sector”. Food industry”.
One in 10 breweries plans to close by 2023
During the commercial negotiations concluded on March 1 with the large retailers, which allow the price of the products sold on the shelves to be set for the year, almost a third of the breweries affiliated with the union failed to transfer the increase in their costs to supermarkets. . The other members of the union, which represents almost the entire industry, from global groups (Kronenbourg, Heineken) to microbreweries, have managed to partially offset inflation, as distributors are not required to accept increases linked to energy or packaging.
In addition, some VSEs/SMEs had to review their contracts with their energy providers at the end of 2022, when prices were at much higher levels, and thus saw their costs “multiplied by four”, Magali Filhue said. According to the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME) and Brasseurs de France, which surveyed some of its members in April, one in 10 breweries would consider closing their doors during the year 2023.
After a period of unprecedented growth linked to the rise of microbreweries, the beer sector had already been hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic and the closure of many bars and restaurants. In a sluggish market, beer sales fell 3-5% by volume in the first quarter of 2023, compared with the first quarter of the previous year, the union notes.
Source: BFM TV
