MP Andrzej Zapałowski (Klub Konfederacja MPs) wrote an interpellation to the Ministry of Development and Technology regarding the controversial activities of Grupa Żywiec on the Polish market of beer producers.
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Controversial activities of Grupa Żywiec on the Polish market of beer producers
The MP wrote that the activities of Grupa Żywiec SA (currently a limited liability company), which has been operating on the Polish beer market since 1998, are controversial. The company has become an important player on the Polish beer market.
– Grupa Żywiec (wholly controlled by the Dutch beer concern Heineken) rejected offers to purchase the Leżajsk Brewery from such tycoons as, among others, Żabka, Mlekovita, Dortmunder (Germany), AB InBew (Belgium); all above companies declared their intention to continue beer production in the Leżajsk brewery; at the beginning of April this year. information was provided to the media that Grupa Żywiec had signed a conditional agreement for the sale of the Leżajsk Brewery with Mycofeast.
Mycofeast is a limited liability company, registered in Poland on February 1, 2024, with a capital of PLN 5,000.00 – noted the MP.
Ministry of Development: Grupa Żywiec does not have a dominant position on the beer market
What does the resort say?
– (…) it should be noted that the analysis of publicly available information and the data held by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection do not indicate the possibility of Grupa Żywiec having a dominant position on the domestic beer market. In the years 2019-2022, the key players on this market were five manufacturers, in order from the largest: Kompania Piwowarska, Grupa Żywiec, Carlsberg Polska, Van Pur, Perła – Browary Lubelskie. Depending on the year, they were jointly responsible for 90-100% of the beer sales volume in Poland, with the leader Kompania Piwowarska having 30-40% of the market share, and the second group Żywiec 25-35%. The share in the domestic beer sales market achieved by Grupa Żywiec in the years 2019-2022 was therefore far from the above-mentioned share threshold of 40%, which would entail the presumption of the existence of a dominant position. Moreover, Grupa Żywiec faces competition from an entity with a larger market share, which essentially excludes the possibility of assigning it an independent dominant position on the beer market. The circumstances described in the interpellation do not allow us to suspect that the practices of Grupa Żywiec may constitute an antitrust problem (…) – wrote Waldemar Sługocki, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Development and Technology.
