Germany: Premium partnerships and strengthened sales pave the way for a promising future for Warsteiner Group

With its unique flavour and outstanding quality Warsteiner Premium Verum, the flagship of the Warsteiner Brewery, is one of Germany’s most popular beer brands. The pilsner, which is brewed with carefully selected raw materials and especially soft water from the company’s own Kaiserquelle spring, is also available in an alcohol-free variant, Warsteiner Premium Alkoholfrei, as well as a beer mix drink in the Warsteiner Premium Orange, Lemon and Cola varieties. Warsteiner products are available in a diverse range of packaging units, the company recently released.

The Warsteiner Brewery has an attractive choice of packaging units for every consumption and purchasing situation. The innovative private brewery offers its customers 29 different forms of packaging – almost exclusively returnable. The main packaging units are the 20 x 0.5 l returnable case and the 24 x 0.33 l returnable case. But the smaller packaging formats are becoming more and more popular: the 6 x 0.33 l pack and the 11 x 0.5 l returnable case have been strong sellers over recent years.

The right beer for every taste

Lovers of top-fermented Weizenbier as well as Dunkelbier and Altbier will also find something to their taste in the Warsteiner Brewery portfolio: the alliance agreed with Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg in 2001 means that beer fans across Germany can enjoy the two brands Prinzregent Luitpold Weissbier and König Ludwig Dunkel. The private brewery from the Sauerland region benefits from the alliance: after all, the Weizenbier variety in particular is recording attractive growth rates on the German market.

The Warsteiner product portfolio was also extended by two high-profile and regionally rooted products in the form of Frankenheim Alt, the leading brand in the Altbier capital of Düsseldorf, and the Altbier mix Frankenheim blue (with cola). Warsteiner brewery’s takeover of the majority shareholding in Frankenheim, the private brewery based in Düsseldorf, in May 2005, was a logical consequence of the alliance between the two companies over the last three decades.

Specialities in the range

The Warsteiner Brewery doesn’t just nurture cooperation and strategic alliances with German breweries. The private Westphalian brewery is the exclusive distributor for Guinness Extra Stout and Kilkenny Irish Beer in the German retail trade. Since April 2005, the company has broadened its existing association with Diageo, the sales organization for Guinness and Kilkenny, in Africa and Ireland.

“As international premium brands, Guinness and Kilkenny fit in perfectly with our value-adding strategy and products”, comments Dr. Gustavo Möller-Hergt, “Collaboration with premium companies like Diageo guarantees that the Warsteiner Brewery will remain one of Germany’s most successful private breweries in the future too.”

The Warsteiner Group also relies on strategic liaisons outside of its core business of beer: since autumn 2005, the company has been a sales partner for the energy drink manufacturer Red Bull. The goal is to concentrate on the respective strengths and target groups of each partner together. Whilst Red Bull can use the closely-knit sales network of the Warsteiner Group, WARSTEINER itself benefits from its partner’s presence among the young, trend-conscious target group. “A sales partnership with an energy drink manufacturer is totally uncharted territory for us, but as a premium brand Red Bull is the ideal match for our value-adding strategy.” comments Dr. Gustavo Möller-Hergt.

Innovations for the future

“Innovation through investment” is the maxim of the Warsteiner Brewery. It is not just limited to the research and product development area, as the opening of the brewery’s own railhead in spring 2005 shows. This has enabled 16,000 truck loads per year, carrying up to 200,000 tonnes of freight, to be shifted from road to rail. “In terms of effective and environmentally-oriented transport, the railhead represents a totally rational alternative to the previous shipping method by road”, according to brewery owner Albert Cramer in his address at the opening.

First-class visitors centre

Since May 2006 visitors have been able to gain a convincing impression of the innovative power of the Warsteiner Brewery at the new Waldpark Visitors Centre. The “UNSERE WARSTEINER WELT” presentation entices its visitors away on a unique tour experiencing the world of beer. The WELCOME Centre, spanning more than 600 square meters, awaits the visitors. This is a hall where information, animations and exhibits on the entire WARSTEINER product range, on brand communication over the course of decades, on sponsoring and on Warsteiner Group’s international activities are displayed. It also contains the WARSTEINER Premium Shop. A five minute film, shown in the welcome cinema, puts the visitor in the mood for the impressive things to follow: a visit to a novel round theatre, where they are introduced to historical and modern brewing art in a dazzling multimedia installation. The 32-minute multimedia show with five sets and a 360-degree screen reveals all there is to know about brewing and everything else connected with WARSTEINER. The show-stopper: an electronically controlled, rotating platform transports the spectators straight to the individual sets, ensuring that they are always at the centre of the action. Visitors are also right in the middle of things in the subsequent brewery tour. Here they experience first hand how one of the best beers in the world is brewed and prepared for delivery in Germany and across the world with the help of state-of-the-art technology and logistics.

Founded in 1753, the Warsteiner Brewery is one of Germany’s largest private breweries. Its flagship is the WARSTEINER Premium Verum brand, which is one of the most popular beers across Germany. In addition, the product portfolio includes the beer mixes WARSTEINER Lemon, Cola and Orange, as well as the reduced-calorie HiLight beer.

Apart from the Warsteiner Brewery, the Haus Cramer Group also owns Paderborner Brauerei Haus Cramer KG (Paderborner, Isenbeck, Weissenburger) and Casa Isenbeck in Argentina, as well as interests in König Ludwig GmbH & Co. KG, Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg (König Ludwig Dunkel, Prinzregent Luitpold Weissbier) and the Frankenheim Brewery (Frankenheim Alt, Frankenheim blue, Frankenheim lemon) in Düsseldorf, and breweries in Cameroon, Gambia and Nigeria.

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