The House Cramer Group, renowned for its Warsteiner beer, announced on Tuesday the acquisition of a majority stake in Bierothek, a marketing platform for specialty beers based in Bamberg, Germany. Following their previous investments in the Irish Rye River Brewing Company (inside.beer, 27.11.2022) and the Augsburg-based „flavoured functional water“start-up hye (inside.beer, 16.1.2023), this marks their third non-core investment in less than a year.
In addition to the capital increase, where they acquired new shares in the Bierothek Group GmbH, Haus Cramer has also taken over the shares of the former main investor, Andreas Lapp. Inside-Getraenke found out that this move now gives the House Cramer Group a majority stake of 57.27% in the company, with Bierothek Founder Christian Klemenz retaining a blocking minority stake of 30.11% and continuing as the company's Managing Director.
Due to the increasing responsibilities resulting from the expanding scope of the partnership, the House Cramer Group plans to appoint another Managing Director in the coming months to assist Klemenz in certain areas.
Warsteiner aims to benefit from Bierothek's small-scale direct sales model and create pan-European distribution solutions. The collaboration will focus on expanding the digital online marketplace for European direct sales and developing solutions for business customers.
Christian Klemenz elaborated, "We have very ambitious goals for expanding our digital business in Europe. We have already made legally compliant cross-border direct sales of alcoholic beer possible and now intend to roll out this innovative distribution model on a larger scale."
Helmut Hörz, Chairman of the Management Board of the House Cramer Group and CEO & CFO, added, "Bierothek is in the process of providing breweries with technically sophisticated solutions for new distribution channels to end customers, as well as business customers. With our investment and distribution expertise, we aim to support this innovative development, as it aligns with our long-term objectives and presents synergies with our portfolio."
Simultaneously, the House Cramer Group intends to contribute to shaping the trend toward various delivery models. Currently, products from the House Cramer Group's subsidiary, Rye River, are already available on the online marketplace, and the platform holds significant potential for the beverage group's own products. Both partners are actively working on operational collaboration and joint future projects.
