Page 24 - Craft Beer and Independent Microbreweries in Ireland 2018

Current Performance of the Independent Microbrewery Sector

2.6 Turnover
The total turnover of craft beer producers in 2017 is estimated at €44.3m, up
10.9% from €39.4m in 2016.

More than one in six microbreweries had a turnover of less than €50,000 in
2017 and more than one-third had less than €100,000. Almost one in five
microbreweries has a turnover in excess of €1m. See Figure 2.5.

Smaller microbreweries account for a disproportionately small amount of
the revenue accruing to the microbrewery sector as a whole. There were 25
microbreweries earning less than €100,000 in 2017 and these accounted for
only 2.8% of the total revenue. In contrast, 13 microbreweries earned more than
€1m in revenue each and in aggregate this amounted to over €30m or 70% of
the total revenue accruing to the microbrewery sector.

Table 2.4: Revenue by Size of Microbrewery, 2017

Revenue Number Aggregate Proportion of
Revenue Revenue
(€000) (%)
Less than €50,000 12 306 0.7
€50,000 to €100,000 13 917 2.1
€100,000 to €250,000 13 2,208 5.1
€250,000 to €500,000 8 2,637 6.2
More than 10 6,815 15.7
€1m€500,000 to €1m 13 30,457 70.2

2.7 Structure of Market Demand
Of the 157,000 hl of craft beer produced by the independent craft beer sector in
Ireland in 2017, 126,500 hl was consumed in the domestic market, with 30,500
hl going for export. Thus, exports accounted for 19.4% of total production. This
level of exports is only a marginal increase on export volumes of 29,600 hl in
2016. In contrast, sales to the domestic market grew by 12.7%.

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