Brau AG, Österreichische

Brau AG, Österreichische, largest Austrian brewery with headquarters at Linz; founded in 1921 as Braubank AG; the name Brau AG was adopted in 1925 and continued until 1997. After a fusion with Steirerbrau AG, it has been called Brau Union Österreich AG. With more than 2000 employees, the firm produced approx. 4 million hectolitres of beer in 1997 (including licensed production) in Austria and abroad; the annual turnover was approx. ATS 4.7 bn. Roughly half of all Austrian beer exports are Brau AG products. The 11 brands (and 31 grades) produced are: Zipfer, Kaiser, Edelweiss, Steffl, Schwechater, Wieselburger, Warsteiner, Möven, Adam, Guinness and Schloßgold (alcohol-free). The breweries were situated at Schwechat (Lower Austria), Wieselburg (Lower Austria), Zipf (Upper Austria), Hallein (province of Salzburg) and Innsbruck (Tirol). The malt necessary for beer production was produced at a malthouse at Liesing (Vienna).