Germany's Wolters brewery to close after 400 years as beer sales fall

Germany's Wolters brewery is to shut down after four centuries of operation, becoming the latest German brewer to close its doors in the face of falling demand.

A spokeswoman for the Eckert legal practice handling the brewery's insolvency proceedings said on Tuesday that around 90 employees had been informed of the closure of the site in Braunschweig.

Braunschweig Mayor Thorsten Kornblum described the closure as "extremely painful."

The brewery, which was founded in 1627, filed for insolvency earlier this year, pointing to declining sales. Attempts to find an investor proved fruitless.

The German beer market contracted more sharply last year than at any time since reunification in 1990, according to figures reported by the Federal Statistical Office in February.

The NGG trade union criticized the short period between the opening of insolvency proceedings and Wolters' decision to close. "From the outside, this process looks less like an orderly restructuring and more like an emergency stop," the union said.

The law firm said efforts to preserve the Wolters brand were continuing through talks with interested parties.

Brewery managing director Nils Handke expressed regret over what he described as an "unavoidable" step. "With the closure of the production site in Braunschweig, an era is coming to an end," he said.

In recent years, breweries across Germany have closed because of dwindling demand.