Competition, Promotion, and Activities of Microbreweries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The microbrewery market in the Czech Republic has experienced a tremendous boom, especially in the last 15 years. Recently, people have liked to try new things, and there is a growing demand for non-traditional types of beer offered by these companies. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, microbreweries have had to reduce activities or even close facilities. The paper aims to examine microbreweries' perception of competition threat, promotion, and activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. We examined the differences related to four microbreweries' characteristics: the location of the facilities, the scale of the operations, the annual volume of beer production, and the number of years in business. The questionnaire survey was carried out in 105 microbreweries. We used statistical methods of Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, Mann-Whitney test, and Pearson's Chi-square test to prove research working hypotheses. The results show that microbreweries do not consider the threat of competition high. The beer production volume factor influences this perception of competition. We found that enterprises make the most use of websites and customer referrals in their promotions. We proved that the use of the web depends on the range of business activities. Finally, we analyzed the direct impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on microbreweries. The vast majority of the enterprises partially kept the operation running. Interestingly, some enterprises have taken advantage of the current situation to diversify their activities and look for new opportunities. The main factors that varied between enterprises, in this case, were the range of activities and years in business. The paper's originality is related to the first attempt to analyze the COVID-19 impact on the breweries during the lockdowns and government restrictions © 2022. DETUROPE.All Rights Reserved