The Spanish brewery industry in the 20th century. A view from the inside: El Alcázar

Abstract

There are extensive studies about individual breweries in Spain, but there is not the same abundance on the Spanish brewing industry as a whole. This paper focuses on the development of the industry in the 20th century, using, among other sources, the annual reports and the minutes produced by a brewery. Thus we show a particular view of the industry, which for this purpose we consider it particularly important because the same person was on the general management of this company and the chairmanship of the national association of brewers for 10 years. The analysis reveals that the industry really took off in the 1960s. Later, with the incorporation of Spain into the EEC, a concentration process that has led to an oligopoly dominated by 3 large breweries, unlike the many and smaller companies operating at the beginning of the century.