Swedish consumers continue to appreciate beer, and beer drinking in particular is on the rise. But the beer that is gaining market share is no longer the small-scale and locally produced beverages, but light lagers in the lower price range.
"Light stocks are growing for the first time in a long time. In the past, it has been special beers that have been the most interesting," says Fredrik Arrenander, Purchasing Manager at Systembolaget.
According to him, the beer market has changed after the pandemic. At the height of the COVID virus, the country's microbreweries thrived and demand for locally made beer soared.
The change can also be seen in Systembolaget's own statistics, which show that sales of specialty beers in the first half of this year fell by 14.5 per cent compared with the first half of 2021.
Tough for small breweries
As the economic situation has become increasingly harsh, many beer drinkers have returned to opting for cheap light lager. This is at the expense of the more expensive products from the craft breweries.
Not only are small breweries experiencing a drop in demand, they have also faced cost increases that are helping to squeeze margins even more.
The difficulties for microbreweries have left their mark all over the country and several smaller breweries have gone bankrupt. During the autumn, for example, two breweries in Sörmland went bankrupt, Stallarholmen's brewery and Eskilstuna beer culture.
Larger small-scale range
Nevertheless, Sweden is still a strong brewing nation, according to Fredrik Arrenander.
"We have a larger number of articles from small breweries than we had last year. We have 350 breweries that have almost 2,500 items in our range for local and small-scale products," he says.
In the clip, Fredrik Arrenander talks about the difficulties of microbreweries, but also about what it takes to succeed.