Oettinger Beer

Oettinger Brauerei GmbH

Type	Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung
Industry	Brewery
Founded	1333
Headquarters	Oettingen in Bayern, Germany
Products	Beer
Owner(s)	Dirk Kollmar, Kurt Meyer, Michael Mayer
Website	oettinger-bier.de

Oettinger Brauerei is a brewery group in Germany which roots can be traced back to the 14th century.

Since 2004, when superseding Krombacher, Oettinger is Germany's best selling beer brand with an annual output of 6.61 million hectoliters sold in 2008.^[1][2]

The home brewery and headquarter is in Oettingen in Bayern, but there are also Oettinger breweries in Gotha, Schwerin, Mönchengladbach and Braunschweig which were bought from other brewing companies to achieve short haul transport to Oettinger's customers all over Germany.

Philosophy: Affordable beer

There are about 1300 breweries in Germany, therefore Germany's beer market is highly competitive. Most of them however do their best to brew good beer - although there is little room to vary brewing recipes according to the German Reinheitsgebot which only allows 3 ingredients.

Oettinger capitalized upon a gap in the market: selling large amounts of affordable beer for the lowest possible price. To avoid competition, Oettinger bought the beer brand "5,0 Original" and the corresponding brewery in Braunschweig, a competitor acting in the same market segment. Oettinger can hardly be found on tap at pubs and bars - most of it is sold bottled in super markets and cash-and-carry markets for beverages.

Reduce costs

Oettinger uses several ways to keep beer prices low:

• Oettinger does not advertise whatsoever.
• Oettinger does not involve any intermediaries; brewery-owned trucks deliver directly to stores.
• The brewing process is highly automated and uses few employees to brew vast amounts of beer.

The low price has made this beer brand the most successful one in Germany with an output of 6.61 million hectoliters 2008^[1].

Lack of commercial advertising

Günther Kollmar himself elaborates on Oettinger's sales strategy (an interview translated from German):^[3]

"The term "cheap beer" is actually almost a disqualification. But it's only an attempt. Everything that is marketed well and market adjusted in Germany, is suddenly (called) cheap. Aldi is cheap, IKEA is cheap, the Bild Newspaper is cheap, Oettinger Beer is cheap. Nobody wants it - 'It's dishwater!' But everybody drinks it. (Our) success proves us right."

and he adds with an allusion to advertisements from his competitors Beck's and Licher:

"Everytime when your TV program has become interesting to a degree, you see the ship or the commercial or some kingfisher. We have a low opinion of that."

History

Oettinger's history is documented since 1333. However, 1731 is on the bottle labels.

The "Fürstliche Brauhaus zu Oettingen" (Prince's brewhouse at Oettingen) was bought in 1956 by the Kollmar family (Ingrid Kollmar 64.5 %, Günther Kollmar 11.1 % and Dirk Kollmar 24.4 %) and the company "Oettinger Brauerei GmbH" was founded. This happened under the direction of Günther Kollmar (born in 1937) who is still managing the company.

From then on, the brewery delivered beer directly to grocery stores without involving intermediaries and specialised in low-cost beers.

See also

• German Breweries top ten

References

1. ^ ^{a b} [1] Bild Newspaper
2. ^ [2] Cited news from Financial Times Germany on oettinger.de
3. ^ "Bier vom Billigheimer: Oettinger - Marktführer ohne Werbung". Der Spiegel. 7. August 2009. http://www.spiegel.de/video/video-1015581.html. Retrieved 5. February 2010.