Birra del Borgo becomes Belgian / Brazilian: what effect does it have?
Birra del Borgo becomes Belgian / Brazilian: what effect does it have?

Video: Birra del Borgo becomes Belgian / Brazilian: what effect does it have?

Video: Birra del Borgo becomes Belgian / Brazilian: what effect does it have?
Video: Craft beer around the globe #lphangout - Lonely Planet travel videos 2024, March
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Sooner or later it had to happen that an Italian craft brewery entered the orbit of an international beer giant. And in fact: twist, or not so much:

Ab InBev, after having sold Birra Peroni to the Japanese Asashi buys Birra del Borgo, a former microbrewery founded in 2005 by Leonardo Di Vincenzo in Borgorose, a small town in the province of Rieti on the border with Abruzzo, and today the first Italian craft brewery with a annual production of 12,000 hectoliters, a new production plant in Spedino, partner of the Eataly Brewery project together with Baladin and the Americans of Dogfish Head.

Looking at the recent history of Ab InBev, the purchase should not surprise too much: the Anglo-Belgian group born a few months ago from the merger of two international giants like Ab InBev and Sab Miller, immediately distinguished itself for its frenetic buying activity. -sale.

Beyond Peroni (sold for a record 3 billion dollars), we find the sale of Grolsch, the historic Dutch brand, and Meantime. Behind it, there would be both antitrust reasons and a strong desire to take premium brands by letting go of the medium-low ones.

But let's get to the part of the news that most interests us Birra del Borgo enthusiasts. What will happen to the Lazio brewery, or should we say Belgian-Brazilian, given that Ab InBev has bought 100% of the shares?

Leonardo Di Vincenzo becomes CEO of the company, with full administrative and decision-making powers according to what he said to the Fermento Birra website..

Birra del Borgo will not change, rest assured. Indeed we will have more serenity, more freedom, more know-how, greater investments in research and development. Even from a dimensional point of view, our plans will not change, we have just made an enlargement that allows us to reach 50,000 hl per year in 5 years.

But Ab InBev's appetite for Italian craft breweries may not stop there: in the US, where the craft beer market is worth 22 billion dollars, it has already made several acquisitions. And everything suggests that Birra del Borgo will not be the only one in Italy.

Will it be up to some traditional but not industrial labels such as Forst / Menabrea or Pedavena / Castello? Or instead to other big names in the Italian artisan movement such as Baladin?

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