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Give joy with beer boxes
Peter Reimann is clearly someone who thinks in terms of solutions, not problems. Admittedly, many an entrepreneur may claim this for himself. Often rightly so. But in the case of the Austrian-born beer entrepreneur, his willingness to roll up his sleeves when faced with difficulties and simply build the most straightforward solution himself is almost a matter of principle. The Kalea principle, if you like.
In the retro collection box series, the beer is delivered to the recipient in elaborately designed light metal boxesMore of a gift publisher than a beer publisher
Reimann founded Kalea in Salzburg in 2010. According to the company’s website, the name comes from the Hawaiian word for „giving joy“. Everything at Kalea revolves around giving presents, as the company does not see itself as a beer publisher or traditional beer retailer. „Our focus is on speciality beers and gift items,“ explains the founder during a presentation at BrauBeviale 2023. The Kalea Advent calendar has been the company’s flagship product right from the start. The top seller is now available in different versions.
Nothing works without a beer can!
Kalea does not compete with German supermarkets and drinks retailers with specialities and gifts and wants to expand abroad early on. And here Reimann faces three major problems.
Firstly, exporting bottles is expensive and impractical. Secondly, although German beer generally has a fairly good international image, individual brands and names of small and medium-sized private breweries are little known. And thirdly, none of these traditional private breweries cater for interested customers abroad. If Reimann still seeks international success, he has to achieve it himself.
Reimann solves the problem with the container in a highly pragmatic way: He simply refills the beers! „If we want to tap into the international market, we need cans,“ he says, realising this. So he invested in a can filling line that can also produce small batches of 5000 cans or more. He collects beers from his suppliers in a tanker lorry.
For sale in Germany, many gift boxes are still filled with glass bottles instead of cansThe can still has an image problem in Germany
Kalea produces beer cans that even the most passionate beer drinkers in Germany have never seen before, because they are only sold abroad. Just like the breweries, by the way. „The breweries are ashamed of it,“ says Reimann. He doesn’t understand it himself and he can’t understand why. But that’s just the way it is. The can still has an image problem in Germany. That’s why Kalea sells an Oktoberfest package of festival beer in bottles in Germany, but in cans elsewhere.
The second problem Reimann faced was the question: international customers do not recognise the individual traditional German brands. How does he communicate the top brands? „Packing twelve beers in a box is easy, but communicating their value to the customer is a challenge.“ Initially, the pragmatic solution was: “Let’s just add a piece of paper with information.
A beer app provides added value
The Kalea BeerTasting app then quickly replaced the paperwork. Beer lovers can scan a QR code on the can of an unknown beer from a small German brewery in their hand. All the relevant information can then be called up in the app. More than 250,000 beers are now listed here, says Reimann. And drinkers can rate their beers here too.
Beer quality necessary, but not sufficient
Problem number three: Small and medium-sized breweries often lack a clear profile. Little happens in terms of marketing. There is no exciting storytelling, no community management. They just brew good beer, but nothing more.
Reimann simply does it himself: Kalea now has its own studio where it produces a lot of content about beer specialities. Videos and interviews are played out via the app, for example. And this also contributes to the success of the beer gift retailer from Salzburg.
