Fine beers from Finland Olvi Oyji

FINE BEERS FROM FINLAND

Olvi Oyj is a major Finnish brewery, and produces many successful beers as well as cider, mineral water, and soft drinks. Joseph Altham caught up with Olli Heikkilä, Olvi’s Brand and Communications Director, to find out about a company that has pursued a policy of expansion while preserving its distinctively Finnish identity.

Mr Heikki Hortling, Chairman of the Board Mr Lasse Aho, Managing Director

The town of Iisalmi lies on the shores of Lake Porovesi in eastern Finland. Olvi’s brewery was established in Iisalmi in 1878, and has remained there ever since. Olvi, whose distinctive barrel logo was designed back in 1947, is effectively Finland’s national brewer. Not only is the company Finland’s largest independent brewery, but it is also the only brewery in Finland to have retained its independence since the nineteenth century.

According to Olli Heikkilä, Iisalmi has simply proved to be a very good place for brewing beer. “Water is the main raw material for every beer,” he said. “In Iisalmi we have excellent ground water.” With strong roots in the local community, Olvi plays a central role in the life of this peaceful lakeside town. “It is easy here for us to find and keep a good and committed workforce. We have employees whose fathers and grandfathers have worked for us.” Local customs

Olvi always wants drinking to be a positive experience. “We market our alcohol products responsibly,” said Mr Heikkalä, “and we don’t use kids under the age of 25 in our commercials.” Olvi’s beers are lagers, and are made from mainly Finnish ingredients, although the Finnish climate means that the brewery in Iisalmi has to import the hops from abroad. Olvi’s most popular beer is Olvi III. This is a pale lager with an alcohol content of 4.5 per cent and was awarded the gold medal in Barcelona in 1991. Olvi Ykkönen, with an alcohol content of 2.7 per cent, is Finland’s most popular mild beer, and has a market share of over 60 per cent in its segment.

One of the company’s most distinctive beers is its Finnish Sauna Beer, created to accompany this typically Finnish form of relaxation. “The recipe is designed to make the beer easy to consume in hot temperatures,” Mr Heikkilä explained. “It’s OK to drink it when sitting in the sauna. It is smooth and mild without being watery.” In Finland, Olvi’s Sauna Beer is often enjoyed after the sauna as well, and goes well with grilled sausages.

Local heroes

Olvi is committed to supporting Finnish success in sport. The company sponsors the KalPa and Tappara ice-hockey teams and has also been associated with the career of the Finnish champion ski jumper Jaanne Ahonen. Olvi makes a premium brand of beer to honour a Scandinavian hero from older times, Colonel Johan August Sandels, a Swede who fought bravely against the Russians in 1808 at the Battle of Koljonvirta. Olvi first began to produce the Colonel Sandels beer back in 1971. “Sandels was a special man,” said Mr Heikkilä. “He had 600 men under him at the age of 24. Who would be a better person to name a beer after?” Colonel Sandels is Olvi’s main export brand

and Mr Heikkilä says it is proving particularly popular in St Petersburg.

International achievements

Indeed, eastern Europe has been the focus of Olvi’s expansionist ambitions for some years now, and Olvi has breweries in all three Baltic Republics. The company’s Cesu Alus subsidiary is based near the imposing ruins of Cesis Castle. It claims to be the oldest brewery in Latvia, tracing its origins back to 1590. Cesu Alus has been enjoying great success with its Mitava beer, created in 2008 in association with the Latvian rock band, Prata vetra (‘Brainstorm’). Olvi acquired the Tartu Brewery (Tartu Ölletehas) in Estonia in 1997. Olvi not only gave the brewery a new name, A. Le Coq, but also increased its share of the Estonian beer market from 10 to 40 per cent.

“A. Le Coq was a real story,” said Mr Heikkilä. “Mr. Le Coq was a Belgian businessman who moved to London and bought beer from local brewers to export this beer to St Petersburg and to the Russian tsar himself. London was a long way away and so Le Coq began to look for a brewery nearer to St Petersburg. In Tartu, he managed to find the oldest brewery in Estonia, which was already famous for the quality of its beer. The rest is history.”

New opportunities

Over the past two years, Olvi has invested €30 million in Belarus, and now has a 91.58 per cent stake in the country’s Lidskoe Pivo brewery. Olvi’s aim is to use this acquisition

to build up a strong position in an exciting new market. “In Belarus there are 9.75 million inhabitants,” said Mr Heikkilä. “This is a lot as the Olvi Group has a current total of 22 million consumers. In Belarus we can start new categories such as energy drinks that didn’t exist before at all.” Olvi has already helped its Belarus subsidiary to develop a new product, the Lidskoe Premium beer, which the Lidskoe Pivo brewery advertises as a lager with a real European taste.

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