The Downtown Beer Festival starts with the support of SPAR Hungary
The 6th Downtown Beer Festival begins today, and from this year onwards, the main sponsor is SPAR Hungary. The domestic chain has been helping small domestic businesses, including small-scale breweries, to get their unique products onto the market for a long time and encouraging quality consumption.
For a long time, Hungarian small-brewery beer was difficult for the general public to access, as you can typically only get access to unique craft products by ordering online or at a gastronomic festival. SPAR filled this gap when it embraced Hungarian small-scale breweries a few years ago and has continued to support Hungarian small-scale breweries ever since, and makes the quality beers of domestic small businesses easily available on its shelves on a permanent and temporary basis. With the special offer, the supermarket chain offers a quality alternative to quantity consumption, and this principle is only further strengthened by the fact that SPAR has become the main sponsor of the now 6-year-old Downtown Beer Festival from 2022. One of Hungary’s biggest beer festivals will be hosted this year on Budapest’s Szabadság Square between August 30 and September 4, and Hungarian beers available in SPAR stores will also be presented at the event. Although the market for medium-priced products is traditionally strong in Hungary, higher-priced premium beers are becoming more and more popular consumer goods every year due to their uniqueness. Top-fermented beers, aromatic IPAs, midnight stouts, or fruity batches made from large wheat beer are becoming more and more important in the product range of small breweries and international trend breweries. The role of the SPAR network is significant in the rise of these styles.
Consumers buy beer more consciously and bravely
“For years, we have been consciously working to be at the forefront of the development of beer products on the retail market, and the results of recent years confirm that we have started in the right direction when transforming the product range. Five years ago, the small industry contributed only 6.5 percent to our permanent and temporary supply, but today this proportion has increased six times. According to the data and experience of the past years, the beer product category is no longer growing significantly in terms of volume, but consumers are more selective about which type of beer they vote for: they buy more consciously, yet more courageously, within the different types.
– said Márk Maczelka, communications manager of SPAR Magyarország Kereskedelmi Kft.
He added: the supermarket chain is also open to innovative solutions in terms of the beer palette, they work closely with their supplier partners to develop the composition in order to always offer customers an exciting experience waiting to be discovered.
“For our store chain, which is committed to Hungarian businesses and quality domestic products, the Belvárosi Sörfesztival is a great opportunity for discerning beer consumers to draw attention to the domestic artisanal products available in our stores all year round, as well as the special batches of excellent small-scale breweries. At SPAR, everyone can find a beer that suits their taste, whether it’s a large-scale beer or even a unique, small-batch product”
– highlighted Márk Maczelka.
In addition to the exciting items, SPAR Hungary is also preparing for the event with podium discussions with the participation of well-known representatives of the beer industry at the festival, on the terrace of the SPAR Sörház.
“We are very pleased that the festival and our mission have attracted the interest of one of the largest retail chains in the country. We have been working for years to present the diversity of beer, educate and encourage consumers to consume quality, try new things, and support Hungarian craft breweries. This agreement is mutually beneficial, as we can present the excellent Hungarian small-brewery beers, which are increasingly available on the shelves of SPAR stores, to a wider audience. We are still far from the goal, but we think this collaboration is the beginning of something very good. We are on the right track with the festival, as the number of people increases every year, it is a stable point on the festival map”
– said Dániel Kurucz, the main organizer of the Downtown Beer Festival.
“The largest Hungarian sales manufacturers, the premium segment has already reached a third of the total turnover this year, and the branded middle category also performed well with its 60% sales. This is thanks to the fact that the product and technological developments of recent years have expanded the selection available in the large-scale palette. In addition to the traditional brands of bottom- and top-fermented beer with a tradition spanning several decades or even centuries, the rising new stars, flavored and non-flavored non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers, have gained strength, of which 75 thousand hectoliters, i.e. 15 million cans, were sold per month in the summer season.
– said Dr. Sándor Kántor, director of the Association of Hungarian Brewers.
“Our association, as the representation of the interests of small-scale breweries, continues to maintain its main task of promoting access to the market. The amendment to the trade law entered into force a year ago, but it did not bring satisfactory results. We hope that after another amendment to the text of the law, our presence in the HORECA sector will increase by leaps and bounds. We have an excellent cooperation with the Agricultural Marketing Center, with whom we will strengthen our cooperation from autumn. We can present our products to the professional audience in Finland, Belgium and Germany, among others, and we bring domestic manufacturers together with potential customers at B2B meetings.
– emphasized Zsolt Gyenge, the president of the National Association of Small Breweries.
Festival Hippie is already on the shelves of the store chain
From the middle of August, the official beer of the Downtown Beer Festival, Festival Hippie, which was dreamed up by beer fans, will be available on the shelves of SPAR. Based on thousands of votes, the unfiltered, straw-yellow, light-bodied top-fermented row specialty was created, which is given its tropical fruit and citrus aromas and flavors by American and Australian hops and experimental hop specialties.
More information about the programs of the 6th Downtown Beer Festival and other information can be found on the website of the event: https://www.sorfestival.hu/