Polish brewery with 700-year tradition closed by Heineken-owned Żywiec Group

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

A brewery that claimed to be one of Poland’s oldest, with a history dating back over 700 years, will close at the start of 2026, its owner, Żywiec Group, a subsidiary of Dutch brewing giant Heineken, has announced.

Żywiec cited “a declining beer market and rising costs and taxes” for its decision to shut down the brewery in the town of Namysłów, where production was first recorded in 1321. Żywiec has owned the brewery since 2018, when it bought it for 500 million zloty (€118 million) from an American investment group.

The brewery’s roughly 100 employees will receive full severance packages and additional support agreed with trade unions, the company said. It added that it is in advanced talks with potential investors over the sale of the brewery’s assets, though details remain confidential.

Namysłów’s mayor, Jacek Fior, lamented the decision to close down the brewery, noting that his town’s identity had been closely identified with it for centuries. He claimed that it was the second-oldest continually existing enterprise in Poland, behind only the historic salt mine in Wieliczka.

However, another brewery in Poland, in the town of Lwówek Śląski, claims an even older tradition dating back to 1209. Moreover, the location and ownership of the Namysłów brewery has also changed a number of times over the centuries.

Fior expressed hope that the latest development would be “only a turning point” and that the town’s brewing tradition can be continued. “Despite the many twists and turns of history, I wouldn’t want this brewery’s story to end with the current owner,” he told Radio Opole.

Namysłów is not Żywiec’s first closure in recent years. In 2023, it also announced that it would cease production at its Leżajsk brewery.

Those decisions have come as beer consumption dropped by around 5% in Poland over the past five yers, while production has fallen 13%, reports the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper.

Despite lower volumes, however, the value of Poland’s beer market has continued to grow, driven by rising prices. The industry was worth an estimated 22.9 billion zloty at the end of last year, about 31% more than in 2019.

Poland also remains the European Union’s third-largest beer producer, behind Germany and Spain, and accounts for around one tenth of all beer brewed in the bloc. The country produced 3.4 billion litres of beer in 2024, according to Eurostat.

Żywiec Group is a subsidiary of Dutch brewing giant Heineken. Its portfolio includes Polish brands such as Żywiec, Warka, Tatra and EB, as well as international labels including Heineken and Desperados.

Source: Eurostat

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Żywiec Group

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.