Who Are the Largest Breweries in the EU?

Key Takeaways

• AB InBev is the largest brewing group in both the EU and the world. It is headquartered in Belgium. It produced 495.49 million hectolitres of beer in 2024. That is 26.4% of global output.
• Eighteen EU-headquartered brewing groups rank among the world’s top 40 brewers. Together, they produced 52.5% of all beer made globally in 2024.
• AB InBev and Heineken alone account for 39.2% of world beer production. That is almost three times the combined output of the other 16 EU groups on the list.
• Germany places six brewing groups on the list. That is more than any other EU country. None of them ranks above 23rd globally.
• Germany counted 1,459 active breweries in 2024. Its brewing groups stay small even though the country has plenty of them.
• AB InBev’s scale traces to repeated mergers. Regulators cleared its 2016 purchase of SABMiller only after AB InBev agreed to sell off nearly all of SABMiller’s European operations.

Beer Output of the Largest EU Brewing Groups

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Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

AB InBev and Heineken Make 39% of the World’s Beer

Eighteen EU-headquartered groups rank among the world’s top 40 brewers. Together they produced 984.67 million hectolitres of beer in 2024. That is 52.5% of everything brewed worldwide.

AB InBev and Heineken account for most of that. The two companies alone made 736.19 million hectolitres in 2024. That is 39.2% of world output, almost three times as much as the other 16 EU groups on the list produced combined.

AB InBev’s scale did not happen overnight. The company grew through a string of mergers. The most recent one is the 2016 purchase of SABMiller. Regulators raised concerns that the deal would reduce competition and raise prices in several European countries. They cleared it only after AB InBev agreed to sell off nearly all of SABMiller’s European business.

Germany’s Six Brewing Groups All Rank Outside the World’s Top 20

Germany places six brewing groups on this list. That is more than any other EU country is represented. However, none of them ranks above 23rd globally. Radeberger Gruppe is Germany’s highest-ranked group at the 23rd position. The other five all fall between 28th and 33rd.

Combined, the six German groups produced 42.83 million hectolitres in 2024. That is less than a fifth of Heineken’s output alone.

Germany counted 1,459 active breweries nationwide in 2024. A large number of small brewers, rather than a few large ones, defines its beer industry on this list.

Spain is the only other EU country with more than two entries on the list. It places three groups. However, none ranks higher than 18th.

The EU’s brewing industry splits into two tiers. A handful of companies reached global scale through decades of acquisitions. Most of the rest operate at a fraction of that scale. Scale on this list comes from consolidation. It is not from how many breweries a country has.