Nepal: German based Warsteiner starts production

German based Warsteiner group has started commercial production of its beers in Nepal. Catharina Cramer, owner and president of the board of Warsteiner Group, inaugurated on Wednesday the production plant with a yearly capacity of 250,000 hl in Hakui, 250 km west of the country’s capital Kathmandu.

The new venture comes at a time when Warsteiner’s problems in its home market reach a peak. In February Warsteiner’s new Managing Director Alessandra Cama, who joined the brewery in October 2017 as head of Roland Berger’s restructuring team, announced the dismissal of 240 people, 17% of the entire staff of the Warsteiner Group. (inside.beer, 5.2.2018)

She also started the sale of Warsteiner’s 300,000 hl subsidiary Herforder Brauerei as well as Warsteiner Distribution, a company which bundles four beverage wholesalers and ten beverage shops. While Warsteiner Distribution seems to attract several potential buyers, Herforder has become a shelf warmer.

In the early 1990s Warsteiner had been one of the leading breweries in Germany but after sales reached a peak with more than six million hectoliters, the best days of the brewery have passed. Last year only 2.15 million hectoliters of beer were brewed in Warstein. The brand Warsteiner slipped to the seventh place among beer brands in Germany. (inside.beer, 28.8.2018)

Warsteiner’s partner in Nepal is Raj Brewery, a subsidiary of the Jawalakhel Group of Industries (JGI), a business conglomerate managing multiple companies for the manufacture and distribution of alcoholic beverages, namely vodka, whisky, gin, rum (now discontinued), beer and aila, a traditional Newari beverage.

“Warsteiner beer will not only focus on enhancing its market in Nepal, but will try to win hearts of all beer lovers in the country,” said Cramer. Hendrik Pieter Wiel, area business director of Warsteiner International, explained further that the beer is brewed according to German standards and the German purity law for beer only with malt, hops and water. He informed that every ingredient used in production of Warsteiner in Nepal, except water, will be imported directly from Germany.

Share this article: