Regional brands produced beyond the region: An analysis of beer brands from recently closed breweries in Europe

Abstract

Global industry has been undergoing changes in the concentration of brand ownership and production, with acquisitions and closures being a major factor in this evolution. The impacts of such activities are commonly studied from an economic perspective and from the perspective of internal firm-level and deal-level factors, while the influence of external geographical factors is largely neglected. Our research focuses mainly on the importance of geographical cultural factors affecting beer brands whose production location was moved after the closure of the original breweries. The research includes a complete sample of 30 brands from recently closed breweries across Europe. Brands are divided into seven categories according to how their marketing strategy has (or has not) changed in terms of exploiting regional and national identity. The overall success of these brands is then measured in terms of the development of their share in the home countries’ markets. Differences in brands’ strategies and successes are explained through a wide range of country-level factors and the individual characteristics of the breweries. It is shown that the level of beer tradition or identity in the countries, as well as the country’s beer life-cycle position, plays a crucial role in the evolution of the studied brands.

Analysis of the Financial and Non-Financial Indicators of the Beer Sector: Italy and Spain

“…In Europe, the brewing map has changed in the last thirty years, with the absorption and concentration of traditional industries and more artisanal companies [29,41], along with a boom of microbreweries [42,43]. In addition, a brewing wave has spread to different countries, mainly in continental Europe [44].…”

Distribution strategies of new and renewed regional industrial breweries in the context of Czech identity and the traditional beer market

“…Direction and intensity of the dynamic flow of goods in such spaces can be an indicator of production capacities and business strategies on the side of the producer and demand for products on the side of territorially anchored consumers. In their decisions, both actors are influenced mainly by (1) the contextual factors of the environment in which they act which is primarily beer market development (Hána et al 2020; according to product lifecycle, see Vernon 1966;Dicken 2015) and (2) territorial identity (e.g., Schnell and Reese 2003;Schnell 2013;Hasman et al 2021).…”

“…Local producers offer a product that has the advantage of speciality and originality of the production location, which could be supported by the impression that only a particular location has the conditions suitable for the production process (Harvey 2010;Reid and Gatrell 2015). When expanding to farther locations, they must choose a different marketing strategy or convince the more distant customers of the territorial uniqueness of their production (Hasman et al 2021).…”

“…Thus, the brewery changes the originally clear ly dominant "contagion" strategy to some extent (cf. Hasman et al 2021) and expands it with elements of the "hierarchy" strategy, targeting both nearby and distant larger cities and outlets with larger beer sales, at the expense of nearby rural outlets with smaller sales. However, the distance factor remains signif icant and sets the limit for expansion -in the more distant, larger cities (Brno, Ostrava and Plzeň), Cvikov was present only sporadically, and, if so, it was in mul titap restaurants, especially in the early part of the observed period.…”

“…Only three deviations are dynamising this environment: acquisitions, microbreweries, and new industrial breweries. In the case of the strongest play ers in the market, the strategy is to acquire competing companies and take over their outlets (Bennison et al 1995;Dicken 2015;Materna et al 2019;Hasman et al 2021). A major global innovation in the brewing industry in recent decades is the emergence of thou sands of microbreweries (Wojtyra et al 2020;Mater na et al 2021), but these remain largely associated primarily with their own brewery restaurant or its immediate surroundings (Pachura 2020).…”