Czech Republic & Germany: Major Czech breweries attempt to capitalize on the traditionally high exports of beer to Germany

The FIFA World Cup tournament in Germany may have only entered into the second half, with the playoffs in late June and early July, but many Czech businesses have already come up with predictions of final counts. There will be no losers on the business front, Czech Business posted June 26.

“There’s record interest, there will be record profits [for beer producers],” said Jan Veselý, chairman of the Czech Beer and Malt Association (ČSPAS).

And breweries weren’t the only ones to capitalize on the football fever in this country.

Along with breweries, bars and restaurant are hoping for the longest possible participation of the Czech team in the World Cup. “The longer the Czechs will remain in the tournament, the bigger the interest and the more beer parties we can expect,” said Alexej Bechtin, spokesman for Plzeňský Prazdroj, maker of Pilsner Urquell.

He added that the World Cup was expected to increase beer sales in this country by about 2 percent.

“Based on our research, beer consumption in this country during the World Cup rises by about 5,500 hectoliters per week. Average weekly consumption of beer in this country stood at 300,000 hectoliters per week in 2005,” Bechtin added.

While the results of the Czech team are essential to the country’s minor breweries, which are counting mainly on domestic consumption, ma¬jor breweries such as Prazdroj and Budějovický Budvar attempted to capitalize on the traditionally high exports of Czech beer to the World Cup’s venue, Germany.

Exports of Czech beer to Germany have doubled over the past few years. While Czech breweries exported 437 hectoliters of beer to Germany in 2000, the amount rose to about 900 hectoliters by 2004.

Before the World Cup, Budvar renewed its cooperation with some German distributors in order to expand its German channels. “We couldn’t miss this opportunity,” said Budvar’s director, Jiří Boček.

Meanwhile, Prazdroj signed contracts with several travel agencies that were organizing football trips to Germany, some of which offered the beer on board their buses.

Bechtin said that thanks to Pilsner’s exports overseas, the brand was also expected to be in demand by U.S. or Canadian visitors to Germany.

Ironically, sales of Czech beer in Germany could be further boosted by the official partnership of U.S. beer giant Anheuser-Busch and the FIFA World Cup, said Veselý.

“The Germans are proud beer consumers, and they aren’t happy when being pushed to drink just one beer,” he pointed out.

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