Lech Browary Wielkopolski celebrates its 40th anniversary

Exactly four decades ago, on May 15, 1980, the brewers from the brewery in the Franowo district in Poznań prepared the first brewing batch in the new brew house. Since then, the brewery has gained not only years, but also production capacity and beer brands. Today, Lech Browary Wielkopolski is one of the biggest breweries in Europe and it has a great influence of the Wielkopolska region.

Lech Browary Wielkopolski is not just a synonym of excellent quality, centuries-long tradition and modernity, but also an important contributor to the development of the region, paying over 14.4 m zloty in tax1 and employing 775 people2. It is one of the biggest breweries in Poland (8 million hectolitres of beer annually) and Europe, and the symbol of sustainable approach to production. Together with other Kompania Piwowarska’s breweries, it achieves the best results in terms of water savings – it uses only 2.63 litres of water per litre of beer. Starting from this year, under a renewable energy purchase agreement, it is powered by 40% wind electricity. In 2022 it will use 100% renewable energy.

– Lech Browary Wielkopolski is a Wielko Brewery – one of the most cutting-edge breweries in Poland and Europe, where technology constitutes merely support for the unique employees. They are excellent at their job and, above all, they share the same passion, diligence and perseverance, which are the most famous qualities of the residents of Wielkopolska – commented Tomasz Maksymiuk, Director of Lech Browary Wielkopolski.

Over the 40 years of its existence, Lech Browary Wielkopolski has been continuously developing and improving. Between 2020 and 2021, it plans to spend 138 m zloty on a new bottling line and expansion of the potential for brewing non-alcoholic beers. As the director of the brewery emphasizes, “these changes do not regard only the production volume, but also the quality, flexibility, consumption of utilities, management systems, safety and many, many other areas. We are the leader of the beer market and we continue to strengthen our position, and more importantly – the consumers love and appreciate the taste of our beers!”

The taste is also appreciated by the judges of international competitions. In 2019, Lech Pils, the flagship beer of the Wielkopolska region, received a golden medal at the world’s most prestigious beer competition - International Brewing Awards, as one of two Polish laureates.

The Poznań-based brewery also continues to take care of the local community, especially in this difficult situation. Due to the pandemic, Lech Browary Wielkopolski gave up its anniversary celebrations and instead decided to support those most in need. It focused on ensuring the health and safety of its employees, which always has been and will be a priority for the brewery, and maintaining production continuity, which translates into retaining employment.

The brewery has donated 50,000 zloty to Poznań-based hospitals, and on top of that nearly 260,000 cans of the non-alcoholic B-life beverage will be delivered to the health care personnel, rescue services and non-profit organizations, including the Food Bank in Poznań. Lech Pils joined the initiative of the fans of the Lech Poznań football club, supporting medical professionals.

Not a lot of people know that Lech Browary Wielkopolski – even though younger than the other breweries owned by Kompania Piwowarska – is the heir of over a century-long brewing tradition, as its history dates back to the 19th century, when two breweries – Mycielski and Hugger – paved the way for Lech Browary Wielkopolski.

The construction work began in 1975 and five years later the brewery was commissioned, with a production plant of capacity that was truly impressive at that time – 1 m hl of beer annually (in reality, such result was only achieved at the beginning of the ‘90s), and a malt house with production capacity of 50,000 tons of malt per year. A true milestone in the history of the brewery was pouring the first batch of beer on June 23, 1980. Already the next day, the Exportowe Specjalne beer was available in shops. The Lech beer, which Lech Browary Wielkopolski is most famous for, appeared a bit later, in 1982. In 1990, Lech became one of the most popular beer brands in Poland, with an annual production volume of 85,000 hl (today it is over 700,000 hl!).

1992 brought a real breakthrough, when the company was commercialized and Lech Browary Wielkopolski SA was established. The same year marked the first unprecedented campaign connecting the brand to colour green, symbolizing purity, joy and youth. Seven years after that event, in 1999, Lech Browary Wielkopolski joined forces with Tyskie Browary Książęce, creating Kompania Piwowarska SA. The next years (2000 – 2015), brought intense development of the brewery and large-scale investments, including a new hall with the surface area of 2.4 thousand m2, bottling line, can line, expansion of fermentation and increasing the efficiency of filtration, building a new brew house, modern boiler room and sewage neutraliser.

Today, Lech Browary Wielkopolski is one of the biggest breweries not only in the country, but also in Europe. Due to a number of investments, the initial capacity of 1 m hl was transformed into a cutting-edge brewery able to produce over 8 m hl of beer annually.

– I would like to thank the employees of the Brewery for being a part of this continuous brewing adventure, by contributing with their commitment, attention to quality and safety, solving everyday problems and – especially in the current circumstances – taking care of each other. Thank you for being here and creating this wonderful community called Lech Browary Wielkopolski! – adds the Director of the Brewery, Tomasz Maksymiuk.

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1 Share in CIT taxes, farm tax, immovable property and perpetual usufruct tax, transferred to the budget of the city of Poland in 2019

2 Employment at Kompania Piwowarska in Poznań, data for 2020