1.1 Definition and presentation

Beer is an alcoholic beverage made from four ingredients:

Water
Barley malt (derived from cereals)
Yeast
Hops

The origins of beer are very ancient and date back to about 5000 years ago in Asia, a period in which the drink was used mainly with religious and ritual significance.

In Italy, beer has played a secondary role for centuries, the Italians in fact appreciated wine more, until the mid-nineteenth century the consumption of beer was limited to real fans, but already at the end of the century there were about 140 business enterprises. Since then, the path of beer has changed considerably, and in the last ten years has shown a steady growth in Italy. Despite the preferences of Italians for wine remain, beer is one of the most produced, exported and consumed drinks in the territory. Once again in fact in 2018 there was a growth in per capita consumption of beer, a beverage that is gradually conquering a greater number of fans, without discrimination on grounds of gender or age.

The Italian beer market will be gradually influenced by considerable transformations regarding the conceptual (meaning) and functional (consumption habits) equivalence of the drink, by demographic changes and by the growing position occupied by artisan production in the heart of Italians.

1.2 The European beer market growth

1.3 Italy’s positive beer evolution

Volume sales of beer in Italy have registered in the last ** years (***) - reaching in **** a volume of **,* million liters.

Source: ****

In **** according to Osservatorio Birra, the beer market in Italy reached a turnover of *,* billion euros.

1.4 International trade

UN Comtrade is a database proving access to global trade of commodities, identified through a code.

Consumption of beer in Italy is driven by importation - reaching USD *** million - which represents circa three times the value of exports in ****. Both exports and imports grew in the time span ****-****, although ...

1.5 2.1 Changing alcohol consumption in Italy

Istat data sheds a light on alcohol consumption throughout the years. In **** a lower percentage of Italians consumed alcohol daily – **,*% compared to **,*% in **** – whereas an increasing number of occasional drinkers was registered (***).

Additionally, data on daily intake of alcoholic beverages in **** per type of product shows considerable differences among the various ...

2.2 Beer conquers Italians’ consumption habits

Beer and wine are by far the most consumed alcoholic beverages between **** and ****, with **% of respondent stating they have consumed the two in the last ** months.

Source: ****

According to a survey on alcohol consumption and preferences among Italians carried out by YouGov, among all beverage categories throughout all age groups, beer ...

2.3 Growing interest towards special beers

Special beers

The category of special beers includes all types of beer different from lager, by origin, taste and/or alcoholic content. Between **** and **** the aforementioned category grew impressively both in volume (***). [***]

Consumption occasions of special beer

A survey conducted by Doxa on the Italian territory on special beer consumption highlighted ...

3.1 The journey of beer

Italian beer value chain is composed by four categories of activities:

Each activity adds value to the economy under the form of “shared value”. The shared value is composed by the added value of production, the employment, the levy, the economic repercussions; and in **** amounted to €*.* billion.

Source: ****

A closer look ...

3.2 A greater fragmentation of the industry

As aforementioned the beer industry counts an impressive number of actors involved in the entire value chain, from supplier to retailer, leading to a fragmented outlook. Direct employment was estimated to involve *,*** workers in ****. In addition, the industry as a whole is expanding due to a growing presence of microbreweries on ...

3.3 Growing Italian’s production

Raw materials utilized in Italy to produce **,* million hectoliters of beer are displayed below:

Source: ****

All figures include microbreweries and non-member breweries.

Italian’s production of beer has registered a steady growth since ****, reaching in **** **.* million hectoliters. The biggest portion of national production is consumed internally - circa **%.

The map ...

3.4 Off-trade remains the predominant channel

Source: ****

Beer remains by far in the hands of the off-trade channel, whose incidence grew in the time span ****-**** to **%, consequently leaving a smaller portion of the market share to on-trade.

Within the off-trade channel, GDOs dominate retail sales. [***] Therefore the channel will be taken into further analysis in terms ...

4.1 Breakdown of beer categories

Source: ****

Standard beers continue to outperform all other categories, conquering **% of total sales, followed by special and premium beers, sharing similar market shares (***), whereas the economy category holds a small percentage of sales – *%.

Increasing interest in beer consumption by a larger percentage of individuals and advent of trends such as premiumization ...

4.2 Brand oriented supply

The Italian beer industry is highly concentrated in terms of supply, meaning a few companies dominate the offering on the market. Indeed, Heineken Italia controls circa **% of the beer marketed for consumption on the national territory.

Source: ****

Heineken owns some of the most popular beer brands known in Italy, - in ...

4.3 Price, packaging and sizes of beers

Following the categorization of beers into premium, mid-priced and economy, an impressive price difference can be observed. Indeed, the premium beers can cost up to fourteen times more than economy beers – e.g. Weissbier/Weizen/Wheat beer EUR**,** per liter versus Alpen * Plato EUR*,** per liter.

Source: ****

The most popular pack ...

5.1 Extremely regulated environment

The beer industry has encountered for many years a stringent regulation in Italy, due to the excise duty legislation. In Europe specific goods are subject to the excise duty, alcohol being among those. Excise duty is an indirect tax that is therefore applied on the production or consumption of certain products ...