Asahi will brew and bottle its Polish flagship brand, Tyskie, at the Warsteiner Brewery of the Haus Cramer Group. Starting next month, the beer will be available for pick-up in Warstein. Distribution of the beer will continue to be managed independently by Asahi Brands Germany.
The new cooperation was made possible with the establishment of H. C. Drinks Solutions in February 2023, an autonomous subsidiary of the Haus Cramer Group, aimed at expanding the diversity of their service offerings. "With the Asahi Beverages Group as our new client, we position ourselves as a strong service partner for brand producers across all supply chain processes,"Adriano Leo, Managing Director of H. C. Drinks Solutions said in a statement.
Tyskie has been a prominent player in the German beer market for years, partly due to the influx of Polish workers into Germany, making it one of the main imported beer brands, with recent imports totaling around 300,000 hectoliters.
Jan Krafka, Country Director at Asahi Brands Germany, stated, "To better cater to our target audience and meet their demands, we've been considering introducing our successful Tyskie Gronie in a 0.33-liter bottle – efficiently and sustainably. It's a milestone in our company's history to brew Tyskie Gronie in partnership with a German entity. [...] With the Haus Cramer Group and their H. C. Drinks Solutions, we've found the perfect partners to uphold the Tyskie recipe and our brand."
Aside from Tyskie, Asahi Brands Germany distributes several other well-known beer brands from its office in Cologne, including Pilsner Urquell and Peroni.
Sustainability has played a significant role for Asahi, alongside cost considerations. Previously, Tyskie was exclusively exported from Tychy, Poland, to Germany. Additionally, it's noteworthy that the beer will now be bottled by Warsteiner not in individual bottles but in the standard 0.33-liter Longneck bottles and packaged in six-packs, a format common for beer specialties in Germany, further enriching Asahi's product range in the country.
