Durst Malz, the German arm of the French Soufflet Malt (InVivo) group, has informed customers that its two remaining German maltings will cease production: Heidelsheim by the end of December 2025 and Gernsheim during the first quarter of 2026. The announcement was issued by Philipp Schumpp, Sales Manager, who in a circular to customers pointed to sustained structural challenges in the German beer and malt market. Years of declining beer consumption, rising costs and export difficulties have steadily eroded the economic basis for operating three malting sites in Germany.
Beyond the pure shutdown timetable, industry circles report that key positions at Durst Malz in Germany are already vacant. The departure of experienced specialists and managers in recent months has left important operational and administrative functions unfilled, further limiting the ability of the German organization to maintain its previous scope of activities even before the final closure of the maltings.
Soufflet has assured customers that all contractual obligations will be fulfilled and that the group will maintain its commercial presence in Germany via the existing sales team, supplied from its modern European malting network. The step marks the final stage of a consolidation process that began with the closure of the Castrop-Rauxel plant announced in February 2025 (inside.beer, 10.02.2025).
The underlying market pressures are severe. Since 2018, sales of alcoholic beer in Germany have fallen from 94 million hectoliters to 82.6 million hectoliters in 2024 (inside.beer, 03.02.2025). The resulting loss of roughly 11.4 million hectoliters of Reinheitsgebot-compliant beer corresponds to an estimated 180,000 tons of malt—more than three times the annual capacity of the Castrop-Rauxel plant that has already been removed from the market.
These German developments are embedded in a broader global strategy. Following the takeover of Groupe Soufflet by the French agricultural cooperative InVivo and the subsequent acquisition of United Malt Group (UMG), Soufflet Malt now operates as part of the world’s largest malting group, with a focus on optimizing capacity and logistics across continents rather than maintaining smaller, structurally disadvantaged sites (inside.beer, 27.03.2023). Within this framework, Germany will in future be served from other European maltings instead of domestic production.
For the German market, Soufflet’s withdrawal removes one of its major international malt operators at a time when the entire sector is grappling with shrinking volumes and tougher export conditions. Market observers caution that, unless German brewers can revive export growth or stabilize domestic demand, further capacity cuts by other maltsters cannot be ruled out (inside.beer, 17.03.2025).
