Lech Browary Wielkopolski (; English: Lech Breweries of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest cit ...

) is a big industrial brewery in Poznań, with a production capacity of 7.5 million hl. The plant is owned by

Asahi Breweries is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo. In 2019, the group had revenue of JPY 2.1 trillion. Asahi's business portfolio can be segmented as follows: alcoholic beverage business ( ...

subsidiary Kompania Piwowarska SA.

History

The modern brewing plant in Poznań was built between 1975 and 1980. In 1984, a malthouse was added. By 1992, along with other brewers, it was part of Wielkopolskie Zakłady Piwowarsko-Słodownicze SA, but after 1992, it became the company's main production facility, Lech Browary SA. In 1993, the ministry decided to privatize the ownership of the brewery. As a result of the tender a majority shareholder in the company was Euro Agro Centrum Poznań, owned by entrepreneur Jan Kulczyk. In 1996, the brewery was taken over by

South African Breweries South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-Bu ...

, which in the same year, together with Jan Kulczyk, purchased the

Tyskie Tyskie () is a Polish brand of beer. Its name comes from the brewery located in the Upper Silesian town of Tychy. It is brewed by the Tychy Princely Brewery (Polish ''Tyskie Browary Książęce''), part of the Kompania Piwowarska brewery group, w ...

Brewery. Three years later, the two breweries were combined to form

Kompania Piwowarska Kompania Piwowarska is a Polish brewing group based in Poznań, established in 1999. Since 2017 it has been owned by Asahi Breweries. Kompania Piwowarska currently has three breweries: Lech Browary Wielkopolski in Poznań, Tyskie Browary Książ ...

. On 11 March 2007, at the newly opened section of the brewery, the world's biggest beer mug was erected and filled with Lech Pils beer, setting a Guinness world record for the largest number of people drinking from one mug, which included 4250 liters of beer. The establishment of the record was attended by 10,625 people.Lech Pils i rekord Guinessa
On 31 July 2010, an advertisement containing words "Zimny Lech" (Cold Lech) was placed near

Wawel The Wawel Royal Castle (; ''Zamek Królewski na Wawelu'') and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established o ...

. The controversy was that in Polish, "zimny Lech" means both ''cold Lech (beer)'', as well as ''cold (body of) Lech (Kaczyński)'', the former president of Poland, who was buried in Wawel on 18 April 2010. On 2 August 2010, it was announced that the advertisement would be removed from near Wawel, as well as from other cities. In 2017, Kompania Piwowarska was acquired by Asahi.

References

External links

Centrum Wycieczkowe Lech
* {{Coord, 52.3861, N, 17.0004, E, source:wikidata, display=title Breweries of Poland Beer brands of Poland Companies based in Poznań