Holsten Brewery

Holsten Brewery (Holsten-Brauerei AG) is a brewing company founded in 1879 in what is now Hamburg's Altona-Nord quarter. The group now has seven breweries in Germany. Its nationally distributed premium brand is the pale lager Holsten Pilsener. The company was acquired by the Carlsberg Group in 2004.

History

In the late 19th Century Holsten Brauerei first began trading in the UK when they purchased a brewery in Wandsworth, London. Holsten Pils was first imported into the UK in 1952 thus creating the premium packaged lager market. In 1979 the first of many award winning TV ad campaigns was launched featuring actor Donald Pleasence. In the mid-1980s Holsten became the UK's number one selling premium packaged lager. Up until 1999, Holsten UK operated as a joint venture between Holsten Brauerei and S & N., but in that year the joint venture was dissolved and Holsten UK took over responsibility for the on-trade, followed in 2000 by the off-trade.

In 2003 Holsten Brewery absorbed the Bavaria-St.Pauli brewery with their main brand Astra. The Holsten group subsidiary Hansa-Brunnen AG has two plants producing mineral water and carbonated soft drinks, mainly for distribution in northern Germany.