German brewing in the 1970’s – even more numbers

Great little number mine I’ve found here.

I’ve noticed that, as the years have gone by, my posts have become longer. Looking back to the early days of the blog, many posts are two or three hundred words, a few maybe five hundred. Nowadays I feel guilty when I dish up fewer than 600 words.

Where’s this going? You should be able to guess. Not too many words this time. But a fair few numbers to make up.

It’s all about beer output per worker:

“Table IV shows the volume of beer produced per person employed in the different EEC countries in the years of 1967 and 1974. During these seven years the Irish brewers have been the most progressive with an increase from 890 hl up to 1,325 hl, but the highest productivity is in France with 1,447 hl, followed by the Netherlands with 1,403 hl per person employed. In West Germany with our numerous breweries we produce 1,037 hl per production employee, a little more than in Great Britain where one employed person is producing 927 hl. The reason for this low output is Great Britain's problem for the future and may be found in the very traditional production system in some plants.”
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 83, Issue 1, March-April 1977, page 72.

Here’s the table:

TABLE IV. Beer Production in hl per annum per person employed in the Breweries or the EEC.
Country	1967	1974
Denmark	635	831
Eire	890	1,325
Great Britain	560	927
Italy	788	-
Netherlands	1,012	1,403
Luxemburg	677	1,056
Belgium	627	800
France	1,032	1,447
West Germany	794	1,037
Total	719	1,060

You can probably guess where this is going. We’ll have a look at today:

Output per employee in 2012
Country	employed	output (1,000 hl)	output per employee
Denmark	3,500	6,080	1,737
Ireland	1,500	8,195	5,463
United Kingdom	13,500	42,047	3,115
Italy	4,700	13,293	2,828
Netherlands	6,300	24,271	3,853
Luxembourg	130	292	2,246
Belgium	4,500	18,751	4,167
France	3,900	17,132	4,393
Germany	26,900	94,618	3,517
Total/average	64,930	224,679	3,460
Source:
Beer Statistics 2014 edition, Brewers of Europe, 2014, pages 11 and 27.

Looks like productivity has shot up. Let’s do that nailing and comparing thing.

Output per employee in 1974 - 2012
Country	1974	2014	% change
Denmark	831	1,737	109.04%
Ireland	1,325	5,463	312.33%
United Kingdom	927	3,115	235.99%
Italy	-	2,828
Netherlands	1,403	3,853	174.59%
Luxembourg	1,056	2,246	112.70%
Belgium	800	4,167	420.86%
France	1,447	4,393	203.58%
Germany	1,037	3,517	239.19%
Total/average	1,060	3,460	226.45%
Source:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 83, Issue 1, March-April 1977, page 73.
Beer Statistics 2014 edition, Brewers of Europe, 2014, pages 11 and 27.

Isn’t that interesting. Productivity seems to have shot up. At the same time as the number of breweries has explodes and output per brewhouse collapsed.

What a weird and wacky world we live in.