As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of November, 2020, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which blocked their HoReCa segment and the festival business overnight, Zagreb’s craft brewery The Garden Brewery, whose shares have been listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange since the spring, managed to increase total revenues by 20 percent in the first three quarters of 2020 thanks to export growth which has doubled compared to last year.
With the strong growth of the European export market, The Garden Brewery managed to enter the huge market of China during this crisis year, thus cracking the Asian market and the expansion of that brewery to Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
Next year, the goal is America, they revealed from The Garden Brewery, which just won gold for the second time as the best brewery in the EU, according to the 2.2 million votes of Beer 52, the largest beer club in the world. Tom O’Hara, the brewery’s director, explains that this year has been a year of quick solutions, innovation and launching entirely new processes. Like many, the pandemic closed The Garden Brewery overnight and they had to turn directly to consumers.
Through their webstore and social media, they discovered audiences across Europe who were interested in trying their beers at home. That opened up a whole new sales channel, O’Hara says. Their distributors across Europe quickly adapted to the situation, which brought them export growth in the first three quarters of 2020, seeing it grow by a massive 108 percent, and exports have also been the largest generator of growth this year.
Despite the decline of HoReCa and festivals, The Garden Brewery had a 20 percent increase in total revenue thanks to exports in the first three quarters of 2020, with investment in production doubling, meaning it can now produce 2 million litres of beer a year.
The Garden Brewery’s founder David Plant pointed out that the pandemic has accelerated change so strongly, that he is confident it will emerge from this with a much stronger position. Here in Croatia, the losses were very large due to the pandemic, the abolition of festivals and the weaker summer season, and also the earthquake, but good cooperation with partners supermarkets means they can expect a decent 2021.
Next year, in addition to export growth in Asia, The Garden Brewery plans to explore entering the US market. “In these 4 years, we’ve come a long way and I believe that next year we’ll continue to prove ourselves as an important, fast-growing, innovative global craft brewery from Croatia,” concluded Plant.
Entering the Asian market could be a new milestone for the company, too. Tom O’Hara explains that the Asian craft beer market has been strong for the past 10 years, and in recent years it has opened its doors to the best breweries in Europe and America. Their consumers are well informed and know what they’re looking for, and that is quality, innovative products. The possibilities for The Garden Brewery there are, as such – endless.
“Entering such a large and important market like that of China requires a lot of time and planning. We work with an excellent Chinese distributor who loves our beer and story and together we went through all the logistics, paperwork and regulations together, gaining a good impression of which beer flavours do well there and which don’t. After a few deliveries alone, we’re recording significant growth, the potential is obviously huge and a few of our beers have simply been on fire. Next year we’re planning some tours and events across China and cooperation with Chinese breweries, we can’t wait,” revealed David Plant.
He is aware that starting a business in China can mean a huge shift for their business, but at the same time they need to continue to innovate new styles of beer too, as well as work to maintain excellence in their own products and business.
Within Asia, each country has its own story, from the stage of market development to regulation and consumer taste, but the first indications for many of these countries are very positive indeed.
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