"We give our customers a chance to try fresh, unpasteurized beer which is not a mass product," says Aurelia Luckiewicz, Browarmia's marketing chief. The beer made in the brewery is based on the recipe of their own brewer. "We want to create a new culture of beer drinking in Poland," says Stanisław Magdij, the operating director of Bierhalle.
Micro market
In Poland, microbreweries and beer restaurants are still a niche business. "In the West, every city has a microbrewery if not a few. In Poland there are around 40 microbreweries, while in Germany there are a couple of thousand," Luckiewicz says. There are only seven beer restaurants in Poland. Spiż from Wrocław has been pumping out its golden nectar since the early 1990s and has two restaurants in other Polish cities. However, Warsaw's first microbrewery, Soma, closed down in 2004.
Having your own brewery doesn't come cheap, however, and this scares many potential investors away from the market. "It is a very high investment," Luckiewicz says, and Magdij reveals that the start-up costs are in the millions of złoty.
According to Luckiewicz, Browarmia took a year of planning and preparation. "We toured the US, Austria and Germany to see how microbreweries operate," she says. Bierhalle's founders looked to Germany's beer-brewing culture for inspiration, and their restaurant offers a mix of Bavarian and Polish cuisine and culture. "One of our partners owns a brewery in Germany and in terms of the recipes, we are using the experience of German breweries," Magdij explains.
Another factor hindering the market's expansion is the excise tax on alcohol products. In Austria, for example, microbreweries pay 50 percent less excise tax; in Poland it is only 20 percent lower. "It is a necessity we have to accept and the costs are calculated into the business plan," Magdij says.
The franchise factor
However, it seems that the two firms are brewing up a storm. Luckiewicz said that Browarmia is getting inquiries from people across Poland asking about their brewery installations. "We would definitely like to open up franchise restaurants in other cities. If it's not possible, then we would just sell the know-how," Luckiewicz says.
Despite the fact that Bierhalle opened as recently as October 2005, it is already getting ready to expand. "In the course of the next two to three months two new beer restaurants will be opened in Poland," Magdij says. He didn't disclose where the new outlets will be, but he says that the company's ultimate goal is to have a brewery in every large Polish city.
"The growth potential of the market is enormous," says Browarmia's Luckiewicz. "Poles already consume over 80 liters of beer per year and there are only seven beer restaurants in the country."
Michał Pakulniewicz
Last year saw two microbreweries open their doors in Warsaw, and business has been brisk for Bierhalle and Bro-warmia.
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