Germany: Rauch to buy bottling plant for Red Bull

The Austrian juice producer Rauch Fruchtsäfte is apparently about to take over a large water bottling plant in Baruth, Germany, where the company wants to bottle not only its own fruit juices and semi-finished products but also Red Bull for the German and neighboring markets. As inside getraenke reported today there has already been a handshake agreement between Jürgen Rauch and the owner of the bottling plant Michael Schäff.

Rauch has been Dietrich Mateschitz's bottler for Red Bull from the very beginning in 1987. In Austria (Rankweil) and Switzerland (Widnau), Rauch bottles Red Bull in the immediate vicinity of the Ball/Rexam can plants. In the United States, Rauch has recently set up a plant for Red Bull in Glendale, Arizona (inside.beer, 20.11.2019). A second production will be located in Concord, North Carolina where Red Bull and Rauch plans to invest more than USD 740 million by 2027.

The bottling plant for mineral water and soft drinks in Baruth, around 60 km south of Berlin, was due to close at the end of July after Altmühltaler Mineralbrunnen and its owner family Schäff lost a large private label bottling contract with nationwide supermarket chain Edeka. Around 300 employees were about to be laid off. (inside.beer, 13.6.2022)

Red Bull already sells more than 700 million cans (1.75 million hl) of their energy drink in Germany and Rauch another 70,000 hl of fruit juice. This quantity would already ensure a basic capacity utilization for the Baruth plant, whose capacity is estimated at 6 to 7 million hl. In addition, Rauch could expand its contract filling activities.

However, the deal would mean the addition of new Red Bull canning facilities and possibly also the installation of Tetra Pak packing facilities for fruit juice in Baruth. So far, the plant is only equipped with filling lines for PET bottles.

Rauchis a beverage company based in Rankweil, Austria, close to the border to Lichtenstein and Switzerland. It was founded in 1919 by Franz Josef Rauch and has remained a family business for four generations.The Rauch brand is particularly known for producing a range of juices.

Since 1987, when Red Bull started launching its product in Europe, Rauch was the sole producer of the product. In 1998, Rauch’s beverage supply was also extended to ice tea. In 2000, Rauch purchased the nearby Fohrenburg Brewery in Bludenz, Austria, but the company was sold again in November 2019 to Heineken’s Austrian arm Brau Union Österreich. (inside.beer, 20.11.2019)

In 2019 Rauch exported its products to about 100 countries and exceeded sales of one billion euros.

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