Soproni
Soproni is a Hungarian beer brand formerly produced by the Sopron brewery and now by Heineken Hungária Sörgyárak Zrt. based in the western Hungarian city of Sopron . Founded in 1895 by Gyula Lenck and a consortium of a Brno brewery, the company with its main brand is today one of the largest breweries in the country.
history
After the region around Sopron had been known as a wine-growing area since the Middle Ages, the first beer brewery in the city itself was only founded in March 1895 by master brewer Gyula Lenck and a consortium of a Brno brewery. It was called the First Sopron Brewery and Malzfabrik , which was translated into German . After the company was founded, construction began on the plant. The planned production volume of the plant was 25,000 hectoliters of beer and 500 tons of malt per year, with five workers, 29 loaders and six day laborers being employed initially. On December 6, 1895, the opening of the brewery was approved, after which production could begin. On April 1, 1896 at 7 p.m. the first delivery left the factory on a decorated beer carriage. The first year of existence was marked by severe crises, with the company struggling to survive and asserting itself on the market in constant competition with the other breweries. This went on for around 20 years before a big step in the company's history was taken in November 1917, when the brewery was continued under a new name and as part of the West Hungarian brewery and malt factory , which was headquartered in Budapest .
In the period up to nationalization in 1948, the production capacities were fully exhausted. After nationalization in 1949, the plant in Sopron was run as an independent company and was called the Sopron National Brewery . Another major change came on January 1st, 1954, when four independent companies merged to form the Hungarian National Breweries. In the period between 1955 and 1966, among other things, production was increased to a total of 300,000 hectoliters per year.
In 1971 a large number of Hungarian breweries merged. Under these new framework conditions, the brewery in Sopron was given a relatively high degree of independence. By 1982 the annual production increased to a total of 500,000 hectoliters, after which the company achieved complete independence. After further developments and enlargements in the years 1987 to 1991, the annual production capacity was increased to 900,000 hectoliters and thus almost doubled. On October 14, 1988, the company was able to acquire the license to brew the Austrian brand Steffl from Österreichische Brau AG , today Brau Union . In the following year, the company also received the license to brew and sell the Zipfer brand .
In 1992 the company was converted into a stock corporation, the main shareholder of which was Brau-Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft ( Brau Union ). In May 1994 the company entered the Budapest Stock Exchange with its priority shares . This year beer sales rose to over a million hectoliters for the first time. The main brands at that time, in addition to the ones already mentioned, included the private label Soproni , as well as Gösser , Kaiser , Kinizsi and the alcohol-free Schlossgold . In 1997, the Brau Union merged its two subsidiaries, the company in Sopron with the Martfű AG brewery from the small town of Martfű in the Northern Great Plain, founded in the mid-1980s . By the mid-2000s, production could now be increased to two million hectoliters per year; In addition, a 7,000 m² warehouse with a capacity of 14 million beer bottles was built. Since 2003, Heineken has held the majority of shares in the Austrian Brau Union, which is why the brewery in Sopron has also been operating under the name Heineken Hungária Sörgyárak Zrt. to be led.
In 1991 Heineken owned 50.3 percent of Komárom Brewery , after which the name was changed to Amstel Brewery Hungary Plc . After Kapsreiter Pils , Kapsreiter Aranybarna , Talléros and Komáromi Fregatt were brewed under license from the end of the 1980s, brands such as Amstel (1991), Buckler (1994), as well as Zlatý Bažant and Heineken (1999) came under the new Dutch management from 1991. to. At the beginning of 2004, Amstel Brewery Hungary Plc withdrew and the assets were sold.
Products
The company divides its products into four different categories: premium beers , mainstream beers , non-alcoholic beers and ciders . (Status: January 20, 2015)
| Premium beers |
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| Mainstream beers |
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| Non-alcoholic beers |
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| Cider |
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Web links
- Official website of Soproni (Hungarian)
- Official website of Heineken Hungaria (Hungarian / English)
- History of the Sopron Brewery and the Martfű Brewery (English)
- A Hazai Sörgyártás A Kezdetektől Az Államosításig (Hungarian)
- View of the facility at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brau-Union merges its daughters in Hungary: Sopron and Martfü ( Memento from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 20, 2015
- ^ Trademarks from Heineken Hungaria (English), accessed on January 20, 2015