Industry

Lithuania’s breweries cannot boast of such high production volumes as their colleagues in the West do. However, the taste and quality of Lithuanian beer have been evaluated in the world market. Social campaigns are not foreign to the Lithuanian Brewers Guild of Beer. It was the first to have adopted the Honour Code of the representatives of its profession.

The magazine Made in Lithuania talked to the President of the Brewers Guild Saulius Galadauskas about how the Lithuanian brewers manage to remain competitive.

- The main theme of this year’s World Lithuanian Economic Forum is the creation of a competitive state. How do the Lithuanian brewers manage to become established in the global world market and what are the challenges?

- The Lithuanian brewers have done their best to assure competitiveness of Lithuanian beer. As concerns the taste and quality of beer we can effectively compete with the best brewers of the world, which is testified to by the highest awards won at the most prestigious international beer championships. Brewers of our Guild export their production to 35 countries of the world. Good Lithuanian beer has already become one of the tourist attractions and one of the business cards of our country. For example, the British are taught how to pronounce the names of Lithuanian beer at their bars – trade marks in the internal market are so strong that they outrival the most famous world ones.

Of course, to become established in strong markets and to compete with the world giants is very difficult on account of two reasons. First of all, any large Lithuanian brewery is simply a dwarf as compared with the largest European breweries. One large brewery in Poland, France or the Czech Republic can produce such amount of beer per year that would be enough to satisfy the needs of all three Baltic States.

When we speak about economy of this scale you can imagine differences in costs. To sell Lithuanian beer, for example, in some large retail networks of the United Kingdom it is necessary to guarantee the supplied quantities, which means that it is necessary to additionally invest in industrial capacities, and then to invest twice as much in advertising, and expect success.

This is not within the reach of any Lithuanian brewer. All the more so that the authorities support the brewers in every possible way in the countries, which are famous for their beer (for example, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark), and in our country some politicians make attempts to simply criminalize business that makes Lithuania famous. This is how the ban on advertising can be explained.

As I have already mentioned, the Lithuanians have created very strong trademarks of beer in the course of fifteen years. However, if an absolute ban on advertising of beer adopted by the Seimas comes into effect as of the following year, this will practically mean the destruction of the trademarks.

When speaking about becoming established in global markets I can say that some strange agreements of the European Commission with the World Trade Organisation raise serious problems to local manufacturers even in their domestic markets. The European Union imposed the import duty at the tariff of zero on beer imported from third countries (including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine) to the European Union, though when exporting Lithuanian beer to the said countries we pay huge import taxes. There are import taxes on wine but there are none on beer and vodka. Isn’t it a strange agreement? It is true, it was adopted before Lithuania joined the European Union and our country cannot change this agreement unilaterally, so we have cheap beer from the Belarusian state brewery with Lithuanian labels.

- In what way do technologies and management innovations determine the daily life of the Lithuanian Brewers Guild?

- The sector of beer is highly competitive, thus innovations is one of the main factors of success. On the other hand, this is a very competitive product, which is made from 100% natural organic raw materials – water, malt (germinated barley and wheat), hops and yeast. Since there is plenty of malt, hop and yeast acids, we do not have to fear that resources of innovations and creativity will run out, as we have fears that we shall not compose new music because we shall run out of combinations of notes. Modern technological equipment is of paramount significance because beer is brewed exclusively from natural organic materials and to keep its stable taste and quality it is necessary to have modern technologies and professional brewers. Beer is sold in Lithuania in billions of litters, and practically it is impossible to produce such quantities without normal technological equipment. Rumours that technologies reduce naturalness of beer are baseless and most probably are spread by those who are unable to purchase such technologies. Speaking about innovations in management I must say that I am proud to head the association that is one of the most traditional ones by trade and one of the most modern by the level of management and organisational culture.

- The Lithuanian Brewers Guild is famous for its social responsibility. Why are you concerned about that?

- I have already said that I am proud of consciousness of the members of our Guild – Heads of breweries and their high organisational culture. Social responsibility is one of their cornerstones. We are the first industry to have created the code of ethics of our activity (Code of Honour of the Lithuanian Brewers) and we follow it. We devote great attention to self-regulation because law cannot regulate everything, and there are many examples when these laws are not obeyed or violated. Why are we concerned about that? Because social responsibility is not just a matter of fashion, this is a result of consciousness of mature business and one of the pledges of success. It pays to be socially responsible because we reap as we have sown.

- How do the Lithuanian brewers perceive their responsibility to the customers?

- In Lithuania, like all over Europe, beer is one of traditional beverages. We think that a moderate use of beer can be and is a part of Western and Lithuanian culture. At the same time we understand that beer is, though weak, an alcoholic beverage. Being socially responsible with respect to the users, we seek through different social advertising to achieve that minors should not use alcohol, and that adults should not drive under the influence of alcohol, that they should drink with measure and the like. We want, none the less than radical activists who declare “sacred war” to the manufacturers of alcoholic beverage, to see sober and healthy Lithuania. We do not want our users to become habitual drunkards or leave the country. We sincerely want them to enjoy excellent Lithuanian beer with measure, be patriots of our motherland. We also want the users themselves, the family and school, as well as other institutions, to take on greater responsibility.

We want the users to understand that they have to buy Lithuanian beer not only because it is fresher and in many cases is of higher quality than imported beer but also because it is useful to him personally. When choosing Lithuanian beer (like other goods manufactured in Lithuania) you give a job to the grower of barley, the manufacturer of malt or glass bottles, and the latter, having more money, will buy your goods and services.