The Czech nation of beer-lovers celebrates. On Monday, May 25, pubs and restaurants reopened after more than two months, when they had to close in mid-March due to the coronavirus epidemic. However, despite the gloomy predictions from April, according to which the coronvirus pandemic could have destroyed one tenth to a quarter of gastronomic enterprises, only about 2.5% of them will probably remain closed.

This resulted from a survey carried out by Pilsner Urquell. The largest Czech brewery and owner of the Pils trademark obtained data from 80% of pubs to which it supplies its beer. This equals almost half of all gastronomic companies in the Czech Republic. “It is clear that pubs are in a difficult situation and many of them have serious financial problems. Most of those who originally wanted to hang the craft on a nail, however, decided to continue. Of our 20,000 partner enterprises, only about 500 will remain permanently closed, ”says Tomáš Mráz, Sales Director of Pilsner Urquell.

However, it is not yet certain how pubs and restaurants will eventually succeed. The initial estimates from the first days after the reopening say, according to the Czech Association of Breweries and Malthouses, that sales in gastronomic companies are currently at the level of 30 to 40% of normal values. Beer production in barrels and tanks fell by 70 percent in March and April, while bottle and can production rose 15 percent, the association announced.

 “I worked from home at the time of the quarantine, and didn’t get out much. Of course, I missed the beer, and every time I went shopping, I took a few bottles. A big distraction for me was the visiting of the beer-windows that were open in Pilsen. I went to see them about four times.”

Save the beer, save the pub

It was the “beer-windows”, along with the delivery of food and drinks, that ultimately saved many pubs and restaurants. “It is obvious that pub´s are really important for beer-lovers, because in difficult times, many of them decided to support their pubs with the greatest possible consumption,” says Ladislav Vaindl. Thanks to an initiative called Save the Pub, customers could also help to survive selected pubs or restaurants. The application was launched at the beginning of April by the Czech Association of Breweries and Malthouses, and around 2,500 companies took part in it. Through the app, customers bought vouchers in their favorite restaurants, which they can redeem now after re-opening.

Already at the end of March, a campaign called Save the Beer was launched, which was focused on saving mini-breweries. It was set up by the executive of the Kytín brewery, Michal Pomahač. It worked simply – the customer looked at an interactive map which mini-breweries in his region offer beer, ordered and picked it up, or used the delivery option. More than 320 mini-breweries signed up for the application and customers bought beers through it for about 200 million czech crowns (ca. 7.4 million Euro) . They saved millions of beers that would otherwise end up in the canal due to the elapsed consumption time, and thus the mini-breweries themselves.

In this respect, mini-breweries were more fortunate than the big ones. They are gradually pouring hundreds of thousands of hectoliters of this popular drink into the sewer in these days, because there was no way to sell it. These are mainly unfiltered and unpasteurized draft beers. Several tens of thousands of hectoliters will also be poured out by the world-famous Pilsner Urquell, which also exchanged the used beer for a fresh one free of charge for its contracted pubs.

The club of small breweries met with regular guests online

There are already more than 450 mini-breweries in the Czech Republic, which are often not afraid to experiment with unusual products. And in recent years, their products have enjoyed great popularity also in Pilsen, the world’s cradle of the classic light lager. One of the proofs is the Club of Small Breweries, which has been operating since ten years directly opposite the giant area of ​​Pilsner Urquell. “When we started ten years ago, there were 50 mini-breweries in the Czech Republic. Now there are almost ten times more,” says the owner of the company Petr Strnad. His club with a capacity of about a hundred people, including a beer-garden, alternates beers from small breweries at eight beer taps. In addition, there are 60-100 types of bottled beers in offer, about half of it from foreign producers. The club also regularly offers beers from Bavarian breweries from the borderland, especially from Zwiesel or Regen.

The Club of Small Breweries survived the corona-crisis without big losses. “We did not pour any beer, our regular guests kept us. It was more demanding for us than usually, we had to be available for shopping through the window even in times when we are not normally open, and we also offered delivery. We had to meet the customers,” admits Petr Strnad. And loyal customers returned the effort. “One of the regular guests was so afraid of that we´re going bankrupt, that he bought a keg of beer in a mini-brewery in Sušice and brought it to us by train as a gift,” smiles the owner of the club.

He met his regular guests several times during the ten weeks, at least virtually, Petr Strnad says and smiles.

Beer delivery in the plague doctor’s mask

The owners of other pubs also agree that loyal customers have saved their pubs. “I have to say that our customers are great, they supported us, helped us and didn’t let us fall,” praises the owner of the Pivotečka beer bar, Milan Srvátka. “Unfortunately, I’m a little disappointed that the state has come up with basically nothing but bans,” he notes. His beer-bar was saved by sale through a window during the coronation crisis, an agreement with the landlord of the premises where Pivotečka is based, as well as a by new e-shop. That will remain in operation for customers even after the crisis.

Like Srvátka, many entrepreneurs in gastronomy complain about the absence of help from the state. The Ministry of Industry first offered interest-free loans to companies as an aid. However, it did not reach most applicants, the receipt of applications in the first round was stopped after only a few hours. In addition, gastronomy was assessed as a risk area in this program, so entrepreneurs in this field were rejected. According to representatives of banks, some of them could reach for loans provided in the next round of this program, which should be launched in the coming days. However, these will already be loans with interest rates, although lower ones.