Atna brewery bankrupt
March 5, 2008 by knutalbert
Another Norwegian micro has thrown in the towel. It is tough to compete with the big players in the domestic market. To be on lots of supermarket shelves and at the same time making sure the beer has a satisfactory turnover is not just something you can do in your spare time in a country with a geography like ours.
I don’t know enough about their operation to know what went wrong. Some of their beers were perhaps not distinctive enough to warrant a premium price - they were lacking the wow factor. The ban on all kinds of ads and other marketing makes it tough to be visible for your potential buyers.
Nice labels, though.
A question: is there any kind of organised umbrella group for Norway’s independent and micro breweries, to share expertise, lobby the government and generally mutually support each other? Seems like in such a small and tightly-controlled market they could use something like this.
If they organised themselves, the government would probably clamp down on them, exposing a conspiracy to make our young turn to drink.
Seriously, there is a Nordic netwoork of small brewers. I don’t know to what extent there is a coordination at the national level. The business models are very different, from brewpubs via regional or national distribution to the export driven activities of Nøgne ø and Haandbryggeriet. They are not vocal in the national press or on any political arenas.
I believe I will buy a few of their bottles and make a final toast to them, but on the other hand I did feel that they were a distant no. 3 after Nøgne Ø and Haandbryggeriet. But then again, it did seem that they had a one step up from the basic sort of policy. Hope this doesn’t sound too unkind just now.
I tend to agree.
And yes, Johan, the labels are great. You can find his drawings in the biggest Norwegian newspaper every day, so he’s a pro!
We are sorry to hear about the demise of the ATNA brewery and can only sympathise. We are a Uk local brewery producing approx 650 firkins per week we are looking for a trading relationship with a Scandanavian importer/pub group/brewery.
WE do have pubs in our grup and could look for some reciprocal trade to the right partner