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Luxembourg - Luxembourgish beer in Colombian bars

EU-Colombia trade deal opens up new export opportunities for Luxembourg-based brewery.

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Luxembourg

Brasserie Nationale is a Luxembourgish brewery based in Bascharage. The company has been brewing beer since 1975 and is most known for its Bofferding and Battin brands.

The 2013 EU-Colombia trade deal helped the brewery get into a market 100 times bigger than that of Luxembourg. Strong exports to Colombia have boosted the brewery's growth and Brasserie Nationale now exports 34,000 hectolitres of beer a year.

While the brewer is still market leader in Luxembourg with sales of 158 000 hectolitres in 2015, Brasserie Nationale has followed a strategy of internationalisation for the last ten years. Seizing business opportunities wherever possible, the Brasserie Nationale is also active in more distant markets such as China and the US. In an effort to ensure growth the brewery has, for the last ten years, been working to diversify its product range with an emphasis on speciality beers. In markets closer to home the brand has enjoyed particular success in France and Belgium after developing more comprehensive distribution networks towards these countries.

Brasserie Nationale's objective is to significantly increase sales in the coming months."Everything is easy and very flexible thanks to the EU trade agreement with Colombia," explains Fabien Stanczyk, director of Logistics and Export at Brasserie Nationale. "I can deal with all requirements by myself, without having to call on experts or negotiate with middle-men whenever we send a container to Colombia. We export our beer and our partner in Colombia then handles the distribution. We save time and money allowing us to market our beers at competitive prices for local customers."

In light of the brewery's international success, Brasserie Nationale now has plans to hire two additional employees to join their 267-strong team.

Find out more about the EU's trade relations with Colombia