Berlin From Berlin into the world: This applies to the colorful canned beers from the Fuerst Wiacek brewery. The Berlin start-up exports its internationally recognized and award-winning craft beers with names like “Scary Cassettes”, “Parklife” or “Crowdsurfer” to Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Fuerst Wiacek has a permanent place at beer festivals, in online magazines and books around the world. Since it was founded, sales have doubled every year.
The founders Lukasz Wiacek and Georg Fürst were also the first to brew a New England IPA, a particularly hoppy beer, commercially in Germany. Now more people in this country should get to know the various creative beers from Fuerst Wiacek – from IPAs to Berliner Weisse to Pilsner.
In order to finance further growth, the start-up has completed a crowd investing campaign. The two founders now want to use the money to double their capacities.
Georg Fürst trusts that the exclusive offer will hit the nerve of the times: “I am sure that people will soon study a beer list in the same way that they currently look at the wine list in a restaurant.”
After the pandemic, beer sales in Germany have recently recovered. According to Statista, almost three million Germans now drink a more expensive craft beer at least once a month.
Who is the person you are talking about?
Lukasz Wiacek and Georg Fürst came up with the idea for Fuerst Wiacek in their home kitchen. Because they both wanted to try out whether you could brew good beer yourself, they first turned Wiacek’s kitchen upside down.
“It was different from the beer you know from the supermarket,” says Fürst, remembering the first attempts. The result was so well received by friends that they simply continued. In 2016 the two friends founded Fuerst Wiacek.
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They have been taking care of their start-up full-time since 2019. For a long time, as so-called vagabond brewers, they rented rooms in other breweries for a few days in order to produce their own beers – initially just a Hazy IPA, a particularly hoppy beer. However, other varieties and flavors were quickly added, also because Lukasz Wiacek likes to experiment with the recipes.
After a long search and tough negotiations, Fuerst Wiacek opened his first 1,300 square meter brewery in Berlin’s Siemensstadt in the middle of the corona pandemic. Last year 5,000 hectoliters were brewed there. Compared to the German market leader Radeberger, it’s a piece of cake: “The amount of beer we produce in a year is what large breweries make in a day,” says Fürst.
Who are the investors?
For a long time, Prince Wiacek only financed himself through bank loans and put profits back into growth. Sales last year were just under 1.6 million euros. Now Fuerst Wiacek wants to expand more and double the capacity of the production facility.
To finance this, the two founders started a crowdinvesting campaign via Seedmatch. “In the end, more than 320 people invested and we received a total of 600,000 euros, which is significantly more than originally targeted,” says Fürst, who now wants to buy new tanks and expand marketing.
For a long time, the founders only financed themselves through bank loans. Now they have raised money through crowdfunding.
(Photo: PR)
If things continue to go well for Fuerst Wiacek, the investment can be worthwhile for small investors: the minimum return is eight percent. The Berliners do not want to rely on venture capital for their growth: “We want to remain decision-makers in all matters.”
What is the competition doing?
The craft beer market is growing. The better-known providers in Germany include BRLO, Braufactum and Crew Republic. The market researcher Fortune Business Insights predicts annual growth rates of more than ten percent until 2028.
Many of the small breweries had problems during the Corona crisis and had to switch to online shipping. But craft beers are becoming increasingly popular with consumers, who are willing to pay more than for traditional beers despite inflation and weak consumption.
At Fuerst Wiacek, the canned beers in the online shop start at 2.75 euros. However, special flavors such as the imperial stout “Grandma’s Recipe” with vanilla and hazelnut can sometimes cost more than ten euros.
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That’s still less than some US competitors charge, for example. Similar to the large breweries, Fuerst Wiacek is also struggling with the higher costs, for example for malt and logistics. Fürst does not mind competition with other craft brewers and prefers to focus on collaborations such as those recently with Lervig from Norway or Bereta Brewing from Romania.
What’s next?
Fuerst Wiacek now exports his beers, which have a comparatively short shelf life, to 29 countries. Now the start-up wants to become better known, especially in Germany, and be found in more online shops and pubs. However, the beer specialties will no longer be sold in supermarkets.
Fürst is also considering offering non-alcoholic varieties soon: “That’s a trend. But at the moment we don’t have the options yet. You have to be able to pasteurize for that.”
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