Company history

The history of OeTTINGER BEVERAGES begins in 1731 in what is today the Braugasthof Forstquell Brauerei in Fürnheim am Hesselberg, Bavaria. An ancestral portrait gallery, a large photo collection and a host of quaint brewing artifacts reveal the rich family history. And centuries later, the Kollmars maintain a strictly traditional brewing process here – using the copper brewing vat situated right at the heart of the rustic tavern.

In contrast to many other breweries, which own extensive land and run their own pubs or restaurants, enabling them to secure and grow their beer sales, the Fürnheim brewing family simply lack the financial means for growth until the middle of the 20th century.

However, in 1956, just a few kilometers away in Oettingen, Otto Kollmar successfully raises the funds required to purchase the former “Fürstliche Genossenschaftsbrauerei”. With eight employees to start with, the Kollmars begin large-scale brewing operations for the first time, producing around 5,000 hectoliters (50,000 crates) of the finest OeTTINGER beer every year.

During the 1970s, more and more supermarkets spring up on the outskirts of towns and villages across Germany. By this time, Otto has already passed OeTTINGER's destiny into the hands of his son Günther. But Günther Kollmar is not just a brewer with heart and soul; he is above all a non-conformist visionary. With the gastronomy sector already well established as a sales channel for all other breweries, Günther quickly spots that the new supermarket infrastructure may well present an opportunity – selling beer for private consumption at home! However, in order for this vision to become a viable reality, the beer must not only taste amazing, but also has to be cheaper than in the gastronomy sector.

Günther Kollmar sets about optimizing all business processes. Thanks to the latest brewing and bottling plants, economies of scale when purchasing, and consistently forgoing advertising and sponsoring across the board, OeTTINGER Brewery is able to produce beer in a far more cost-effective way than its competitors. In order to cut out the cost of middlemen, Günther Kollmar chooses to distribute the drinks directly, establishing the company’s own fleet of trucks.

The OeTTINGER Concept is born: Top quality at a fair price.

OeTTINGER grows. In 1989, a second brewery, plans for which focus on maximum efficiency and sustainability, is put into operation in Oettingen. A 3.6-kilometer-long subterranean beer pipeline still connects the two locations to this day.

OeTTINGER Brewery experiences its biggest surge in growth with the introduction of can deposits: As a cost-effective alternative, many consumers switch from purchasing beer in cans to buying beer in OeTTINGER's reusable bottles. The Kollmars realize that they need another production site in order to meet this high demand, eventually opting for the Mönchengladbach Brewery in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The can filling lines acquired allow OeTTINGER to make its first foray into foreign markets: in order to make use of the available capacity, OeTTINGER immediately starts to fill cans for export.

OeTTINGER is transformed into the market leader, remaining Germany's largest and most successful beer brand for some time.

The miracle years are over. Beer consumption in Germany steadily falls. Demand for particularly good-value drinks is increasingly on the rise. Cost-effective brands experience a boom. OeTTINGER Brewery, which has been streamlined for efficiency purposes, seizes the opportunity to use its plants to full capacity and partners up with numerous retail chains in the area of production. With success. OeTTINGER expands again and acquires the Braunschweig Brewery in Lower Saxony.

In 2013, the visionary Günther Kollmar dies. However, OeTTINGER remains a family business with his daughter Pia Kollmar taking over the helm. Against all odds, she develops the brewery into a flexible and multi-faceted beverage producer.

Each year, OeTTINGER BEVERAGES fills approximately one billion bottles and cans with beer, beer-mix drinks and soft drinks for sale all over the world.

At our three locations in Oettingen in Bavaria, Mönchengladbach in North Rhine-Westphalia and Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, our more than 800 employees produce regionally and sustainably throughout Germany.
As before, OeTTINGER BEVERAGES stands for something truly special: Top quality at a fair price.

This is the legacy of the Kollmar family, which they have been upholding for 300 years and which Pia Kollmar aims to carry into the future: “I can't help it,” she says with a smile. “OeTTINGER is not just my life. OeTTINGER is in my DNA.”