Saku Brewery

Saku Brewery traces its history back to 1820, when the ethnic German owner of Saku Manor, Count Karl Friedrich Rehbinder, established a brewery at the manor. Brewing activity took off after the manor was acquired by the Baggo family in 1849, with major innovations beginning in this period.

In 1876, Valerian Baggo established a new steam-powered plant in place of the traditional manorial operation, and 4 October 1877 marked the production of the first wort at the new facility.

In 1899, the brewery was incorporated as joint stock company Saku Õlletehase Aktsiaselts and a narrow-gauge railway was built to connect the plant with Tallinn. On 28 September 1899, the first load of beer delivered by train arrived in Tallinn, a change from horse-powered transport.

In 1914, the outbreak of the First World War brought beer production to a halt in Saku and other breweries until 1921.

In 1976, Saku Brewery became an experimental brewery, investments into a renovation of the facility began, brought to an end by Mikhail Gorbachev’s dry law in 1985.

On 12 July 1991, after Estonia restored independence, the government authorized the Saku Brewery, now in the form of a state-owned company, to establish a joint beer production venture with the Swedish firm Baltic Beverages Holding. The government also decided to provide 15.4 million roubles of fixed capital owned by the state company to the joint venture’s statutory fund. The shareholders were the Estonian state-owned Saku Tehased (40%), Hartwall (30%) and Procordia (30%).

At the general meeting of the shareholders of the Saku Õlletehas joint company held on 16 February 1995, it was decided to restructure the company into a public limited company called Saku Õlletehas. On 10 April 1995, there was a public offering of 1,600,000 Saku Õlletehas shares – representing 20% of the share capital. With a nominal value of 10 kroons, they ended up selling for 25 kroons, payable in privatization vouchers.

In 1998, Saku Õlletehase Aktsiaselts was listed on the Tallinn stock exchange. In 2008, the company became 100% owned by Carlsberg A/s and was no longer publicly traded.

Saku Brewery’s domestic product line consists of the beers Saku Originaal, Karl Friedrich, Saku Rock and Saku On Ice.

Saku Brewery is the Estonian distributor for the products made by Carlsberg Group’s Danish, French, Belgian and Finnish subsidiaries. The beer brands distributed include Carlsberg, Tuborg, Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc and Grimbergen, for example.

Also produced and sold: the Somersby cider line, premixed alcoholic beverages (Sinebrychoff, Seth&Riley’s Garage, KOFF), the fermented beverage Mõdu and Karl Friedrich kvass.

Saku’s alcohol-free beverage portfolio includes non-alcoholic beers, beer beverages, ciders and long drinks.