Warsteiner owner Haus Cramer Group could shut two breweries due to “structural” shifts in Germany’s beer market.
In a statement yesterday (7 May), the brewer of Warsteiner pilsner said the potential closure of two breweries in North Rhine-Westphalia followed an “intensive evaluation of all economic options”
Haus Cramer said brewing at its site in the town of Herford will end during the second half of the year. The company has put its brewery 50km south in Paderborn up for sale. Haus Cramer said if no buyer is found for the Paderborn facility production there will also stop by the end of this year.
Between the two sites, 211 employees are affected, although the company said it intends to transfer some of the workforce to its brewery in Warstein. Haus Cramer’s Bavarian operations in the south of Germany are not included in the measures. The company linked the restructuring to a long-term fall in beer consumption in Germany.