HUYGHE BREWERY IS HEADING FOR A RECORD YEAR IN TERMS OF TURNOVER AND VOLUME

The figures speak for themselves: over the past decade, the Huyghe brewery has continued to grow steadily year after year, culminating in the record year 2019, which ended with a turnover of 46 MIO Euros. But that upward curve took a serious blow in 2020, for well-known reasons. In the meantime, the market has bounced back and export figures – which still account for 87% of turnover – are back on track. As a consequence, the brewery is heading for a new record year in 2022.

Alain De Laet, CEO of the brewery, explains: “People say you should not count your chickens before they hatch, but in 2022 we will most likely exceed a brewing volume of 270,000 HL and a turnover of 50 MIO Euro. We are obviously very satisfied with these record figures, because we have been facing some very difficult years: there was the sanitary crisis and the related problems regarding the supply and cost price of raw materials. Not to mention the energy crisis. Fortunately, we have been working very hard for years on turning our brewery increasingly more sustainable, making us virtually self-sufficient in terms of energy supply. The investments in a massive amount of solar panels and in making our brewing process more energy efficient have certainly paid off.”

The main driver behind this success story remains the Delirium family (Delirium Tremens, Nocturnum, Red, Argentum, Deliria, Christmas, Black and Sour Quadruple), which accounts for 63% of overall sales. And within that family it is mainly Delirium Tremens that has the largest impact (55%).

But Averbode also continues to grow year after year and by the end of 2022 numbers will have gone up by an astonishing 30%!

Increased competition, but just as many medals

This success for the brewery obviously did not come out of thin air. Everything starts with the basics, being the brewery's beers. And that these beers display a continuous high quality and are extremely popular, is proven by the many medals the Huyghe beers keep winning year after year. Earlier this year (at the European Beer Star) there was a silver medal for Blanche des Neiges in the Belgian Style White Beer category and a bronze medal for Averbode in the Belgian Style Strong Blond Ale category.

Last week, 6 more medals were added, at the International Beer Challenge:

- Gold for Delirum Tremens in the Tripels category

- Gold for Averbode in the New-World Style Golden Ale category

- Silver for Delirium Red in the Fruit Beer category

- Silver for La Guillotine in the Belgian-Style hoppy blonds category

- Bronze for Delirium Argentum in the Belgian-Style IPA category

- Bronze for Saint Idesbald Rousse in the category Bières de Garde

And just yesterday, at the Horeca Expo, the brewery received a gold medal for Averbode from the Brussels Beer Challenge.

Alain De Laet concludes: “We see that the number of participating countries, brewers and beers entered in competitions continues to increase every year, which means that the competition is getting fiercer. Yet we manage to win medals year after year, which shows that our beers still stand out and excel.”