The end of a well-known Romanian brewery. It used to export, now it has closed production for good

#wellknown #Romanian #brewery #export #closed #production #good

A factory with tradition in Romania, Martens Galați, founded in 1978, closed production after 44 years of operation. The company, listed on the stock exchange since 1997, announced in May 2023 that it would continue to handle distribution.

The traditional brewery, closed PHOTO: Martens/Facebook

The Galati brewery was established almost five decades ago, and among the well-known brands it produced and sold, including in large retail chains, are MaDonna (with coriander and orange peel), Postăvaru and Drive , Hora Unirii, Ploll, Wolf or Stephen the Great.

The export route was taken for years by Driver non-alcoholic beer, the main export destination being Egypt, while the Americans loved Ploll beer and “Stephan the Great”.

In 1998, Martens Brewerij took over the factory’s majority stake. The history of Martens Brouwerij begins in 1758, in Bocholt, Belgium.

“More than 250 years have passed since then, and the tradition has been passed down through eight generations. All this time, their values ​​remained unchanged: they transformed the art of fermenting simple and natural ingredients into the art of giving people the opportunity to share a moment of joy together. (…) Currently we are with consumers together with our retail partners, with whom we have developed competitive and fair products at an affordable price. At the same time, we owe it to ourselves to share some of the Belgian heritage in the art of brewing. In order to fulfill this desire, we have also developed a category of special beers”, said the people from Martens, in a presentation made on the Facebook page.

Martens Galati covers an area of ​​5.5 hectares, and 10 years ago it had almost 120 employees. Due to the increasing losses since the year, the producer of the MaDonna and Postăvaru brands requested the cessation of production. Thus, the company, listed on the stock exchange since 1997, announced that it will continue to deal only with distribution.

In May 2023, the Financial Supervisory Authority approved the request of Bockhold NV Belgium, the majority shareholder of the beer producer Martens Galați, which started the procedure to suspend the company’s shares from trading.

“The announcement by which the company Bockhold NV Belgium expresses its intention regarding the initiation of the withdrawal procedure for the shareholders of the company Martens SA Galați, at the price of 1.63 lei per share, is approved. The company’s shares will be suspended from trading starting from the third working day from the date of publication of the announcement”, states the decision of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).

On March 1, the majority shareholder, Bockhold NV Belgium, made a public offer to buy 301,526 Martens shares, which represents 2.28% of the company’s share capital.

Martens was listed on the Rasdaq market in May 1997.