August the 4th, 2022 - Zagreb's well-known Garden Brewery has expanded its horizons, settling not just on the production of beer, but also on burgers.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the opening of a new larger brewery and catering facility at the Zitnjak location and the return of festival events in Tisno will mark the business of Zagreb's Garden Brewery for the year 2022, which continues to grow in all business segments, and the biggest growth of all is still being recorded by their burger sales.

During the first half of the year, the Garden Brewery generated total consolidated business revenues of 57.3 million kuna with EBITDA of 6.5 million kuna.

The second quarter marked the start of the brewery working at a new location with significantly expanded production capacities. As is well known, the group consists of The Bird (the brewery), Yellow Submarine (their burgers) and Lula (the festival business).

According to the semi-annual group report, the Garden Brewery's business results from the second quarter, and the particularly strong realisation of retail locations for the brewery, have secured the growth of operational business revenues.

In the segment of sales, craft beer sales grew by 7 percent, to 11.7 million kuna, while the yellow submarine segment with a revenue of almost 43 million kuna experienced growth of 41 percent.

“Yellow Submarine continued to implement all strategic plans during the second quarter, primarily in terms of preparing and opening new business locations. A new location in Split has been opened and new locations are being prepared for opening in Zagreb, and we'll continue with that pace over the second part of the year,'' they revealed in their report.

With the opening of the new outlet, the only decline was experienced by the Garden Brewery's online business, which is a logical outcome. During the first half of this year, they earned 20.7 million kuna through the online segment of their overall business, which is a mere 36 percent of the sales revenue generated back during the first half of the 2021.

The group emphasised the challenges of strong inflationary pressures and the growth of production inputs in all segments of the group's business, beer production, original craft burgers and the production of music festivals.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

June 15, 2022 - Zagrebačka pivovara has invested a total of HRK 64 million in a technologically advanced line for filling and packaging cans.

The investment in a technologically advanced line will fully satisfy the constant growth of market demand for canned beer in the Zagreb production plant, further increase the company's sustainability, the competitiveness of domestic production, and offer consumers new formats and multipacks of cans. It is part of the large investment cycle of Zagrebačka pivovara in the expansion of production and storage capacities with which the leading Croatian beer producer is celebrating its jubilee year and the 130th birthday of the company.

''As a market leader, we are celebrating our celebratory year with numerous gatherings with loyal consumers and large investments that will enable an increase in production capacity. The introduction of state-of-the-art technology will make it easier for us to protect the quality of the finished product, and enable us to increase the competitiveness of Zagrebačka pivovara on the FMCG market and within our Molson Coors Group. With the newly installed can line, we will fully meet the required filling capacities to meet the increased needs of the market. Congratulations to the team on the realization of this great project, but also on the 130th anniversary, we are taking great steps forward.", said Miroslav Holjevac, President of the Management Board of Zagrebačka pivovara.

The total investment of HRK 64 million relates to new equipment for filling and packing cans and construction work that was needed to adjust the production plant in Zagreb's Ilica 224 for the installation of a new line. Namely, due to limited space, the new line for cans is distributed on as many as four floors, which makes it unique in this production plant. The introduction of state-of-the-art technology with the new can filling line significantly reduces both energy consumption and the company's carbon footprint on the environment. Sustainable development is one of the priorities of Zagrebačka pivovara's business.

“We invested in the new can filling line last year and in the first half of this year, and we found a project partner in a long-standing and reliable partner, the German company Krones, one of the largest suppliers of packaging equipment in the process industry. In just two months, the teams of Zagrebačka pivovara and Krones have put together a lineup for its functional commissioning. It was demanding, but we are very proud of the result.", said Dubravko Tome, director of production and logistics operations of Zagrebačka pivovara.

Numerous distinguished guests gathered at yesterday's celebration of the 130th birthday of Zagreb Brewery and the presentation of the investment, including the Mayor of Zagreb Tomislav Tomašević, Deputy Mayor Danijela Dolenec, Canadian Ambassador Alan Bowman, Czech Ambassador Milan Hovorka, US Head of Mission in Croatia Mark Fleming and many others.

Mayor Tomislav Tomašević congratulated all the workers and the entire Management of Zagrebačka pivovara on the 130th anniversary of its existence. He especially praised investing in new investments in these challenging times. "I believe that this investment will not only increase production, but also provide new jobs, and the City of Zagreb will always be a partner in such investments.", said Mayor Tomasevic.

The entire investment cycle of Zagrebačka pivovara is planned for the next two years, followed by a major investment in the modernization of the line for filling returnable glass bottles, which will further increase productivity and diversify different bottle formats.

For more, check out our business section.

December the 1st, 2021 - The much loved Garden Brewery is ready to construct a brand new, larger facility and plan their expansion to the distant Asian market.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, with an Advent programme they organised for the month of December, the Croatian craft brewery Garden Brewery is saying goodbye to the facility where they've brewed beer and hosted many events in the first five years of their business.

They're also building a new, significantly larger brewery in Zagreb's Zitnjak area, which will enable them to triple their production and become the largest craft brewery in the region and one of the leading ones in all of Europe, as well as strengthen their exports with the expansion to the Asian market.

The completion and relocation of their production facilities and the Zagreb Brewery to a brand new location is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2022, with installed capacities of 35,000 hectolitres and significantly increased capacity of the retail location.

Zagreb Brewery Director Tom O’Hara explained that with constant growth, the craft brewery has simply outgrown its current location. “In the last two years, our production team has done a really great job because we've had to exceed our capacities, but even that wasn't enough. This year, due to insufficient capacity, we had to give up work, missing out on an additional 30 percent of traffic. There were times when I had to tell the sales team not to actively sell anything. It was an unsustainable situation that needed to be addressed. We've considered several options for continuing to expand at our current location, but we've come to the conclusion that we need to start from scratch,'' explained O’Hara.

Although the continuation of monetary expansion and consequent inflationary pressures, along with the bursting of supply chains, marked the third quarter of this year, in 2021, Garden Brewery continued to record record growth in both revenue and operating profit.

The report for the first 9 months of 2021 states that The Garden Brewery Group, consisting of The Bird (brewery), Yellow Submarine (burgers) and Lula (festival business), generated total revenue of 89 million kuna (twice as much as in 2020) with an operating profit of 16.2 million kuna.

The growth of the craft beer segment stood at an impressive 51.24 percent, and thanks to the completion of the digitisation process, they had 27.8 million kuna in revenue from online sales. According to the Group's report, the aforementioned investment will enable a further step into foreign markets and the possibility of negotiating significantly larger contracts. Garden Brewery's expansion will be financed by a combination of their own funds and favourable credit indebtedness. They don't want to reveal the amount of the investment yet.

“We're building a facility that will, we hope, stand the test of time for the next ten years. We're also investing a lot in our production and sales space, primarily to create a craft brewery that will stand out as one of the best in Europe. Our sales space will provide a user experience that will be completely unique for this region and it will also be a great advertisement for Zagreb,'' O’Hara revealed.

In terms of size, Garden Brewery is still a mid-range craft brewery, but after expansion they want to be the largest craft brewery in the region of Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and in the upper rank of craft breweries in Europe, where they have already established themselves as one of the important players in this blossoming business.

Capacity expansion also creates new opportunities for exports, and Garden Brewery currently exports to over 30 different markets. In Asia, they currently sell to China, Malaysia and the Emirates. The Croatian domestic market accounts for close to 30 percent of their revenue, which they plan to maintain next year, which means additional growth.

“Our strategy for Asia for next year is to grow these markets with the opening of additional ones such as Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and India. Depending on the pandemic, we hope to move in that direction. Although these are remote markets and sometimes they present a logistical challenge for sales, we believe we've only scratched the surface of what we're capable of there,'' concluded O’Hara.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

September the 8th, 2021 - The Croatian Zmajska pivovara (brewery) has been around for a while and is often considered to have been the catalyst for the blossoming and very popular Croatian craft beer scene. It has experienced an increase in revenue and has developed a few new looks.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes, the anniversary of it having been seven years since the launch of the first ''dragons'' (zmajevi) was marked last weekend by the Croatian Zmajska pivovara. The celebration took place in ''the dragon's nest'' in Jankomir, and on that occasion, the company's products were visually refreshed, after the new logo was unveiled back in July.

At the ceremony, called Zmajevo novo ruho (The dragon's new round), the new labels from the Croatian Zmajska pivovara brewery that practically kicked off the local revolution of craft brewing, and which is still in progress, were presented.

The visual aspect of Pale Ale, Porter, Pozoje and other favourites are now in line with the top quality of the product, said the owners of the brewery, Andrej Capka and Hrvoje Cirjak, emphasising that the new visual is more modern and direct, and yet still recognisable.

“It captures the essence of the Croatian Zmajska pivovara and and the main values ​​of the brand: leadership, independence, uncompromisingness, inspiration, courage, and mastery,” they stated from the company.

This brewery has otherwise very much been stabilised and become known as the flagship of the Croatian craf beer scene, a scene that already has more than 100 small independent players on it, and 45 types of beer have been placed on the market so far from Jankomir.

Since back in 2014, 1.5 million euros have been invested in plant and equipment, today, the Croatian Zmajska pivovara has revenues of around one million euros per year, with a growth rate of 20 percent, they say. They also ended pandemic-dominated 2020 in a positive light, despite the impossibility of using the hospitality and catering industry as a sales channel due to lockdowns, which spilled over to part of 2021, too.

“We have twelve full-time employees all year round. Our beers are available to customers through the network of almost all Croatian retail chains. We also export successfully, so far we make about 10 percent of our sales abroad,'' concluded Capka and Cirjak.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

Last year, the Croatian brewing sector did excellently, they generated slightly more than 2.3 billion kuna in total revenues and a consolidated profit of 284.4 million kuna, which is 17.8 percent more than was recorded back in 2018. The Zagreb brewery (Zagrebacka pivovara) has done brilliantly this year, regardless of the ongoing crisis.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 6th of August, 2020, in 2019, as a characteristic precursor to the turbulent period of business under the negative effects of coronavirus on the economy, the Croatian brewing sector managed to do surprisingly well, as referenced with the accompanying figures above.

According to Fina's data, which is traditionally published on the topic on the occasion of the International Beer Day on August the 5th, last year, a total of 92 enterprises operated in the Croatian brewing sector, which is four more than were registered as in operation back in 2018.

However, in this regard, a new question arises as to how many employees they had in total. Namely, Fina's announcement states that in 2019, there were a total of 1592 employees in this activity, which is an increase of 2.5 percent when compared to 2018. However, this is a slightly smaller number of employees compared to Fina's earlier announcement related to the Croatian brewing sector for back in 2018, in which they state that 88 enterprises employed 1622 employees. If this data has been taken into account when analysing the latest trends, then it wouldn't be the stated 2.5 percent of last year's growth, but in actual fact a decrease in the number of employees in the beer industry of about 1.8 percent in 2019 compared to 2018.

Additionally, according to Fina, last year's framework represents another 1.4 percent decrease in total revenue in the Croatian brewing sector when compared to back 2018, followed by an increase in total expenditures of 2.1 percent, with slightly more of the total number of enterprises in this segment operating at a profit than there were in 2018, ie 44 such enterprises (47.8 percent).

Out of 92 enterprises operating in this activity, ten are exporters (9.1 percent more than in 2018) who earned 253.2 million kuna on the foreign market, which is 18.4 percent less than in 2018. They also recorded a higher number of importers (26), which is an increase of 44.4 percent when compared to 2018, as well as a 7 percent increase in imports, which amounted to 414 million kuna. This, according to the aforementioned Fina report, resulted in an increase in the negative trade balance by 110 percent - from 76.6 to 160.8 million kuna.

The largest total revenue - 1.1 billion kuna was generated by Zagrebačka pivovara (Zagreb brewery), which was also the largest exporter. Last year, the company had 577 employees who earned a handsome average monthly net salary in the amount of 11,791 kuna. It showed a positive business result - 234.1 million kuna in 2019 compared to 233.2 million kuna in 2018, when, according to Fina, it had 560 employees who took home an average monthly net salary of 12,728 kuna, which means that there was an 8 percent decrease in take home pay.

Heineken Croatia generated total revenues in the amount of 673.3 million kuna and is in second place in 2019 according to the above criteria, while the positive operating result amounts to 64.1 million kuna. Last year it had 326 employees and seems to have had the highest net salary in the entire industry. The average monthly net salary of 12,157 kuna represents a decrease of about 9 percent when compared to 2018, when it amounted to 13,310 kuna, while in 2018, the company employed 321 employees.

For more on the Croatian brewing sector, follow our business section.

As Novac/Filip Pavic writes on the 10th of April, 2020, the oldest Croatian brewery, the Daruvar brewery (Daruvarska pivovara) has turned to modernisation during the coronavirus crisis. The Daruvar Brewery, which has been celebrating 180 years since its inception, is now selling its beer online and delivering to home addresses.

''People can order it by e-mail and pay by card to reduce any contact between our sellers with customers,'' explained Siniša Lukač, the director of the Croatian brewery that has been producing beer for almost two centuries in the same location, Count Janković's estate in the very heart of Daruvar.

Production and sales, he added, didn't stop even during the Homeland War, and coronavirus isn't going to make it grind to a halt, either.

Delivery is free of charge and the minimum order is a package of twelve bottles. All this can be ordered by residents of Zagreb, Daruvar, Pakrac, Lipik and the surrounding areas, Nova Gradiska, Novska and the surroundings, as well as Virovitica, Bjelovar and Zabok.

''Since the cafes and restaurants are closed and the shops are crowded, we decided to meet people halfway so they don't have to run the risk of going to the shop and waiting in lines. In this way, we're contribute to the reduction of social contact and respecting the recommendations of the Civil Protection Headquarters to the greatest extent possible,'' emphasised Lukač.

One interesting fact is that the Daruvar brewery is still the only brewery outside of the Czech Republic that produces beer according to traditional Czech technology, and last year, their Fifth Element beer recorded a 30 percent increase in sales, with an additional 25 percent increase in sales for another beer - Staročeško.

Back in 2014, the Daruvar brewery also turned to craft production, a move which saw it introduce Fifth Element among others.

Considering the fact that the Daruvar brewery produces about 250,000 hectolitres of beer a year, during these trying ''coronavirus times'', they say that they are recording a decline, as are all breweries.

''It's clear that beer is not the first choice for people when buying supplies, people have other priorities now. Our production has fallen by 30 percent, and we don't yet know what will happen next. Demand for beer is currently diminished, but that's why our beers are on the shelves of all major shopping centres. It's important that we use this moment for collective awareness. Let's buy Croatian, maybe it's fifty lipa more expensive, but it's not of dubious quality,'' Lukač stated.

Despite all, he noted, the jobs of all sixty Daruvar brewery employees are safe - there will be no layoffs. They have, as he pointed out, people who have worked with them for years, entire generations of families.

''I'd like to note that this brewery has been operating over three centuries, it has seen through two world wars and the Homeland War, and now a global pandemic. It has operated through five countries - the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia, and independent Croatia, it has never stopped producing and doing business. We'll do our best to make sure that no matter what, our beer reaches our customers,'' he concluded.

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