Haacht brewery, known from beers such as Primus, Tongerlo, Super 8, Mystic and Charles Quint, has a hard time. Beer sales fell for the second year in a row and the third largest beer brewer in our country saw the loss double to 8.2 million euros.
For the Haacht brewery, the financial year 2024 is one to soon forget. This is evident from the financial annual results that the listed parent company Co.br.ha announced on Tuesday. The Belgian brewery, of which the roots go back to 1898, again sold less beer (-8.4 percent) last year. Turnover clocked at 112.1 million euros, no less than 6.8 million (or 5.7 percent) less than in 2023. Less beer was sold, especially in Belgium (-4.9 million).
From hospitality to home
“The group is mainly active in the hospitality sector in four core markets – Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands – and therefore highly dependent on the trends in those markets,” the press release says. “There is a decrease in the consumption of beer in the Western European markets, and a shift in the consumption of the catering market to the home market.” It is mainly that “strong decrease in consumption in the hospitality markets” to which the group has no answer.
© Fred Debrock
Measures to boost profitability, including a dismissal round in November last year (with twenty employees lost their jobs), did not yet release: the loss increased to 8.2 million euros. Almost twice as much as in 2023, when De Brouwer already dived into 4.4 million euros in red.
To achieve much -needed sales growth, the group now adjusts all sails. “With a renewed retail approach we work on the increase in distribution and sales in the shopping channel,” it sounds. Furthermore, the group closed a commercial partnership with Brique House at the end of 2024, a French craft beer-Brouwer, with AB concert hall in Brussels and with the Winter Circus in Ghent. And to promote his Super 8 Flandrien, De Brouwer will work with sports marketer and organizer Golazo. Finally, Haacht Brewery also wants to develop surprising products that are in line with new consumer trends “.
‘Mr. Primus’
In Haacht they hope that 2025 will be the year of turning. Immediately the first year without Frédéric van der Kelen, the legendary ‘Mr. Primus’, who died on 18 February at the age of 91. The father of current CEO Boudewijn van der Kelen was from the age of 35 to his 87th CEO and in May 2024 – against his will, after a dragging fight with the children of his deceased brother about the strategy and the management – resigned as chairman of the family brewery. “The brewery is my life. Get me away here, and I’ll won’t pull it long,” he looked ahead to his departure in an interview.
At the end of 2024, the group closed a commercial partnership concert hall AB in Brussels and with the winter circus in Ghent
“The group has a clear ambition to realize a sustainable recovery,” it sounds. The sale has already started well in France and the Netherlands, but in Belgium it remained under expectations in the first quarter. “The market conditions remain uncertain and challenging.”
That is why there will be no dividend for the shareholders this year. Although those latter did not let their hearts come: on the Brussels stock exchange, the share went just under 10 percent higher.