‘Valmiermuižas alus’ significantly increased its profit last year

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Although the total volume of beer sold in Latvia last year decreased by 7.5%, the volume of beer sold by the Valmiermuižas alus brewery decreased by 5.5% last year, selling a total of 2,181,551 liters of beer. “The volume of beer sold in liters has decreased by 5.5%, but the volume of sales of soft drinks in liters has increased by 14%,” says the management report of “Valmiermuižas alus”. Restaurants and bars, whose operations were significantly limited by Covid-19 in spring and winter, accounted for significant brewery sales, so the brewery reduced brewing in March and April, while brewing at full capacity resumed in May, with the highest sales so far last summer.

“From the first day, Valmiermuižas alus’s most important customers have been restaurants and bars, which accounted for about 25% of sales. Last March, with the entry into force of the emergency, we literally lost these customers in one day. To use Covid-19 to swim”, we used State aid programs: subsidized jobs, downtime benefits, tax deferrals and working capital grants have allowed us to stop, save jobs, develop new niche flavors, online shopping and exports. We have “rowed harder” to balance lost sales, “says” Valmiermuižas alus “owner Aigars Ruņģis.

According to Valmiermuižas alus, Kokmuiža was the leader in sales growth last year, as well as more and more buyers of soft drinks prefer pure Latvian flavors that combine more juice and less sugar, as a result of which “Gardu muti” jellies were sold 15% more last year. than in 2019.

The company points out that, thanks to the introduction of rhubarb zelter, the sales volume of the “Gardu muti” brand zelter has increased to 253,639 euros. Zelteris is made only from rhubarb grown by Latvian farmers. Also this year, “Valmiermuižas alus” plans to buy 10 tons of Latvian rhubarb for gold production. As Ruņģis has observed, buyers have become more patriotic, but also more selective. With the introduction of the light medal, the sales volume of the Namejs medals last year increased by 80%, reaching 83,000 euros. “Buyers appreciate that we brew the medal with Latvian bee honey, not extract or sugar,” reveals Ruņģis. In turn, the introduction of three non-alcoholic beer flavors last year has allowed to double the sales of “Kokmuiža” lines, reaching 153,422 euros. “We are the only brewery in Latvia that brews non-alcoholic IPA (Indian Pale Ale), which was evaluated by the drivers, “says Ruņģis.

Last year, Valmiermuižas alus continued to develop beer exports. The company has exported its products to Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland, where there has been the fastest export growth. Last year, Ireland became the second largest export market after Estonia. The company has also started exporting beer to Great Britain and Spain, while it has begun exporting gold to Estonia and Sweden. It should be noted that SIA “Valmiermuižas alus” exported 147.24 thousand liters of beer in 2020, which makes up 6.5% of the total amount of brewed beer.

Last year, the brewery used state support programs Covid-19 to mitigate the effects of the crisis: downtime benefits, subsidized jobs, tax deferral. Taking into account the risks and uncertainty caused by Covid-19, the company’s management has decided to postpone indefinitely the investments in the establishment of a new Kokmuiža brewery in Kocēni and to focus on the improvement of the brewery in Valmiermuiža.

Last year, the company had 71 employees, and the company paid 1.54 million euros in tax payments to the general state budget. The share capital of “Valmiermuižas alus” registered in 2005 is 1.39 million euros. Valmiermuiža is a small manor brewery with a total market share of 1.1% and 2.18 million liters brewed per year.

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