Neumarkter Lammsbräu with stable sales and new in-House climate fund

Neumarkter Lammsbräu has further stabilised its turnover at a high level in 2023 The Upper Palatinate organic pioneers, as a 100 per cent branded company, recorded a turnover of 31.7 million euros last year and thus a stable earnings situation for themselves and the farmers of the Lammsbräu producer association EZÖBi. Despite a challenging market environment, Lammsbräu confirmed its turnover from the previous year (2022: EUR 31.8 million) and once again exceeded pre-corona turnover by around 10 per cent (EUR 28.9 million). Moderate price adjustments, in particular
in particular as a result of increased costs for materials, personnel, etc. led to a slight decline in volume: Lammsbräu sold a total of 239,381 hectolitres of organic beverages in 2023 (2022: 260,286 hectolitres). Sales of organic beer totalled 85,524 hl (2022: 98,379 hl). Sales of non-alcoholic organic beverages totalled 153,857 hl (2022: 161,907 hl).

Johannes Ehrnsperger, owner and Managing Director of Neumarker Lammsbräu:
- "Despite a difficult market environment, we continued to stabilise our sales at a high level in 2023. Of course, we also felt the effects of inflation, not least in terms of material costs."

- "It is also a fact that many people in this country set different priorities in challenging times than other Europeans do.ii This also applies to the German organic market, where annual per capita sales of 184 euros in 2022 were already significantly lower than in our direct neighbours Austria with 274 euros, Denmark with 365 euros or Switzerland with 437 euros: Organic opportunity buyers were increasingly reluctant to buy in 2023. Gains outside of a now established core of convinced organic shoppers were almost exclusively achieved on the German market with cheaper achieved almost exclusively with cheaper retail goods and in discount stores."
- "As an organic pioneer and 100 per cent branded company, we see this overall situation as both an incentive and confirmation. On the one hand, we are consistently sticking to our line and continuing to focus on our strengths. Our ecological and long-term economic model, which we have successfully pursued for decades, has carried us and our partners through the last few months very well in combination with successful changes to our cost structure and resource efficiency, among other things. In addition to the highest product quality, it is also the basis for the broad appreciation that our company enjoys."

- "We are also building on this in terms of communication: Of course, we are also making greater efforts to reach people who are not yet regular customers. We will also communicate to them what they get with every sip of our organic drinks and what distinguishes us from organic discount brands. It's not just about the enjoyment associated with our organic beverages, but also about the services we provide to the general public through our ecological management with regard to the climate and the environment. This is where we will be with various campaigns that are deliberately not limited to the traditional organic trade and also address the emotional level. A fundamental aspect of this is the sharpening of our brand positioning at all brand contact points so that the special features of the Lammsbräu product range can be emphasised even better, not least at the point of sale. It will be exciting."

In-house climate fund as an additional transformation booster
The commitment of the Upper Palatinate organic pioneers to climate protection, which was also driven forward last year under the slogan "Climate Strategy 2.0", is also a key factor with regard to the use of resources and the associated costs.

The core of the pioneering project is the completely science-based optimisation of Lammsbräu's successful climate strategy, which has already saved around 24% of the greenhouse gas emissions per hectolitre of the organic beverages produced between 2012 and 2020. The aim of the Climate Strategy 2.0, which is aligned with the Science Based Targets with extensive scientific support from the University of Kassel, is now to further reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2030 compared to 2020. Most recently, around 7.9 per cent of absolute greenhouse gas emissions were saved between 2022 and 2023 alone (2023: 2,118 tonnes; 2022: 2,299 tonnes). Substituting the fossil fuels still used in the brewery is one of the key factors here. Lammsbräu is now holding the funds required for this transformation in a new in-house climate fund.

Johannes Ehrnsperger:
- "We are focussing on actively reducing emissions locally instead of offsetting them elsewhere. That's why we have not purchased any CO2 certificates since 2021. Since then, we have channelled the funds spent on this in the past into our new climate fund, which now acts as an additional transformation booster. The fund also receives money from the early amortisation of energy investments already made, among other things."

- "In the future, we will use our fund to promote measures such as increasing our energy efficiency and replacing the natural gas still used in our company. The use of photovoltaics, solar thermal energy and previously unusable waste heat from production is central to this. In this way, we are protecting the climate and minimising the cost of fossil fuels even faster."
- "Our climate fund also has an impact beyond our farm gates. This is because we also support the build-up of humus on our own farmland, which binds CO2 that has already been emitted back into the soil.