Bars in Luxembourg could soon offer a broader selection of beers

Luxembourg’s pubs, which are tied to just one brewery’s beers, may soon be able to offer a more varied range of brews.

Brasserie Nationale de Luxembourg, the country’s largest brewing company, has told bar operators that they will soon be able to stock beers from craft brewers without violating their contracts.

While leading breweries Brasserie Nationale de Luxembourg and the AB InBev-owned Diekirch currently own many of the venues and the attached alcohol licences, it gives them exclusivity rights for stock, but things may change in the coming months.

According to Finance Ministry, the country’s two largest breweries hold about a third of the nearly 3,300 bar licences and 40% of the alcohol licenses in use.

Speaking to the Luxembourg Times, Twisted Cat beer brewery co-founder Jooël Back said: “The customer now has at least a little more choice in a bar.”

Nearly two dozen bars have reportedly started selling its beers ever since the Confédération des Brasseries et des Brasseurs du Luxembourg(CBBL) sent a statement about an agreement that it quietly reached two years ago with Brasserie Nationale, which allowed any bars controlled through exclusive contracts to sell specialty beers by other CBBL members. This, however, was not widely publicised until now.

The confederation also includes craft breweries such as Clausel, Heischter, and Hinkelsbaacher, as well as microbreweries that are too small to own their own production equipment and cuckoo-brew elsewhere under contract.

Irrespective of the fact that the decision dates back two years, Brasserie Nationale has not promoted that pub operators tied to selling the brewery’s products can actually also sell bottles of another specialty beer.

Describing the situation, Brasserie Nationale managing director Georges Lentz explained: “We don’t have regular contact with our tenants unless there is a problem, unless there is difficulty or unless they don’t pay.”

Lentz insisted: “If they ever call us up and they say, ‘May I do it?’ we say, ‘yeah, sure,’” and noted that so long as the company can identify that it won’t cannibalise sales of its own brands it os not against the idea.

Lentz added: “We’d check out if it’s a member of the federation and if it’s a specialty beer that’s not going to be in direct competition with our beer.”

According to Lentz, some operators don’t want to deal with new sales reps and so they use their contact as an excuse to send them away.

He gives the example of if a sales reps approaches some of the bars and “tries to sell the beer to the bar, you know what the tenants say? ‘Well, no, I would love to but the brewery forbids us to do that.’ That is because they don’t want to get that product. They’re not interested in having that type of product in their bar.”

However, Lëtzebuerger Stad Brauerei director Edmond Libens said that he has observed both sides of the situation and clarified: “I think Brasserie Nationale is trying to show goodwill with this gesture to open its doors to small breweries. However, the salespeople, who are paid based on their performance, are going against their management’s promise.”

In a recent interview, Libens said: “It will never change unless the government will change something”[about the tied system]. It would be much easier for the small breweries or the competitors from abroad, but [Bofferding and Diekirch] don’t want it.”

Libens added: “We only have three establishments with our beers, and to survive, we don’t have much choice. We need to sell as many of our Clausel beers as possible.”

Survey results released by the research firm Ilres for the Economy Ministry and industry federation Horesca recently revealed how nine out of 10 Luxembourg bar or café patrons are with friends when they visit, while 71% say they will enter with a partner, showing that lots of different people are venturing out to drink in mixed groups, attracting new clientele all the time.

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