One of the oldest breweries in Germany is closing (4 photos)
It was founded in 1690.
One of the oldest breweries in Bavaria has announced its closure after 334 years of operation. The brewery in question is Schlössle-Bier, which opened in Neu-Ulm in 1690. Its owner Christa Zoller, whose family has owned the brewery for over 135 years, said that beer production has become unprofitable.
“Beer consumption is falling, but raw material and energy prices are rising. "The brewery has been making us lose money for ten years now," Zoller said.
According to Zoller, in order for private breweries to stay afloat and have enough money to buy the necessary raw materials and equipment, beer prices need to be at least twice as high as the current ones.
"The price needs to be almost twice as high, then we could spend the money on new equipment again. But that's not possible on the market right now. Bureaucracy also makes life difficult for us. In such conditions, every entrepreneur thinks about whether he wants to continue his business," Zoller added.
The Schlössle-Bier brewery produces ten types of beer, including five craft ones. In total, the company currently brews about 100 thousand liters of foamy drink per year. And this is a third less than in 2018.
It is reported that the brewery has already announced on its website that it will stop producing beer. The announcement says that sales of the product will be gradually discontinued over several weeks. The brewery has a restaurant that helped Zoller cover part of the losses for 10 years, but now the situation has become stalemate. The businesswoman does not plan to close the restaurant, which continues to bring in profit.
It should be noted that in early September, the largest automobile concern Volkswagen announced that due to “unprofitability” for the first time in 87 years of its existence, it will close two factories in Germany. It is reported that last year the concern suffered losses of 5 billion euros, and about 110 thousand workers of the auto giant are at risk of layoffs.