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Harboes Brewery Denmark
Harboe & Lotz”, this was the name of the brewery when founded in 1883 by three entrepreneurial Skælskør businessmen; Distillery owner Jørgen Harboe, timber merchant Adolf Harboe and merchant Jørgen Lotz. Together, the three of them built a brew-house and a house for the head brewer. Today, both buildings are still in use for a malt extract evaporation plant and administration offices respectively.

Gunner, son of Jørgen Harboe, received training as head brewer in Germany, and on 2nd  August 1883 the first brew of the so called “Hvidtøl”, a Danish type of non-alcoholic beer, was sold from the new-built brewery. Only the following year the brewing of dark beer was started, and in 1890 the production of larger and soft drinks began.

In the first years of operation all beer was filled in two wooden barrels and distributed in the vicinity of Skælskør by horse and carriage. From 1890 beer was bottled and the pasteurising process was introduced in order for the beer to keep longer: The bottles of beer were simply dipped in a vat with hot water and held there for a certain period of time.

In 1910 Frederik, son of Gunner Harboe, became the owner of the brewery. He initiated an extensive modernisation of the whole plant and installed new cooling facilities and the first rotating bottling station. Up until now the beer had been bottled manually and cooled with ice kept in underground cellars. The annual capacity of the brewery at the time was 350,000 liter of beer. For comparison the present capacity is app. 2,000 million liter beer.

For a period of time the brewery was called “Bryggeriet Sydvestsjælland”, but since 1949 the name has been “Harboes Bryggeri”. When Gunnar, son of Frederik Harboe, became managing director in 1957 the brewery was converted into a private limited company with members of the Harboe-family as sole shareholders. At the time the brewery had 34 employees, compared to the present staff of 470 in the brewery sector.

During the 1950’s the brewery experienced strong growth and expanded its distribution throughout Sealand. With the aim of separating its marketing strategy from that of competing breweries, Harboe introduced a discount policy and launched its first nationwide advertising campaign headlined “5 øre for you every time you choose Harboe”.
The product range included 11 types of beer and many different soft drinks as well as malt extract. At that time the brewery also operated its own grain drying and malting plants.

In 1960 a new brew house was put into service – implementing the most modern machinery of the time. As the first brewery in Scandinavia it was mounted with a control panel from where all technical operations were controlled. This automatic control of the brewing process is currently being upgraded. In 1990/91 a complete computer control system was installed, and this system is still among the most advanced in use in Europe.

On 1st May 1973 Bernd Griese was employed as a technical worker at Harboes Bryggeri. Bernd Griese, who was a qualified electro engineer, married in 1971 a daughter of Gunner Harboe, Ms. Kirsten Gunnersen Harboe. In 1984 Bernd Griese was appointed managing director of the brewery. This marked the beginning of yet another period of extensive investments and growth, and today Harboe is in the middle of a rapid international development.
In 1974 the “Bear Beer” was launched, and this beer has more than any other product led Harboes Bryggeri to success on the export markets.

In 1989 Harboes Bryggeri A/S became listed on the stock exchange, the Harboe-family holding the majority of shares.
Today Harboes Bryggeri A/S is experiencing an ongoing growth with a wide and attractive product range of beers and soft drinks. The last couple of years considerable investments have been made, which Alhambraly within the soft drink production has resulted in a substantial extension of capacity, enabling the company to meet the expected rise in demand. Harboes Bryggeri A/S will develop and strengthen the activities as supplier of beer and soft drinks on the local markets as well as on the export markets.