Royal Unibrew
Danish brewing group with Baltic and Finnish reach.
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Royal Unibrew is a brewing and beverage company headquartered in Faxe, Denmark. It is the second largest beer company in Denmark with a market share of about 25%, and its brands include Ceres, Faxe, Albani, Thor, Karlens and Royal. The company also has a strong presence in the Baltic region, Finland, and France.
Lore & Background
The company was founded in 1989 through the merger of the breweries Faxe, Ceres and Thor under the name Bryggerigruppen. Odense-based Albani merged with the company in 2000. In 2005, the name of the company was changed to Royal Unibrew.
The largest brand of Unibrew is Royal, which is based on Ceres' Ceres Royal Export and Faxe's Faxe Pilsner/Classic. Royal Export was also brewed by the other breweries in the group, but later the Pilsner and Classic were added to make a complete family of beer as is traditional in Denmark. Royal Unibrew also brews and markets Heineken and Pepsi in Denmark.
Reader's Guide
Royal Unibrew's significance lies in its consolidation of several historic Danish breweries into a single group that became the second largest beer company in Denmark. Its expansion into the Baltic region through acquisitions of Lithuanian breweries Vilniaus Tauras and Kalnapilis in 2001, a controlling interest in Latvian brewery Lāčplēša Alus in 2004, and ownership of the Latvian soft drink company Cido and Tanker Brewery in Estonia extended its influence.
The company also entered the Polish beer market with the acquisition of Browary Polskie Brok-Strzelec S.A. in 2005 and Browar Łomża in 2007, though those Polish operations were later sold to Van Pur Breweries in exchange for a 20% stake, which Van Pur subsequently bought back in 2012. In 2018, Royal Unibrew acquired the French soft drink brewery that produces the Lorina brand. Its portfolio includes the Royal brand family, which became a staple in Danish beer culture, and its ownership of Hartwall in Finland further solidifies its position as a major Nordic beverage group.
More in Breweries of Scandinavia and the Low Countries
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Royal Unibrew (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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