Brewery Closure Deal Caps Severance at €150,000 as 220 Workers Face Exit From Two German Sites
Published on 08/01/2026 at 02:02 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The end of a brewing era in East Westphalia now has a price tag attached. Haus Cramer Group, the company behind the Herforder and Paderborner beer brands, has finalised a social compensation plan with employee representatives covering roughly 220 workers who will lose their jobs when the two production sites shut down.
Negotiations concluded on 30 July 2026 after what both sides described as tough bargaining, with the financial package agreed the previous day. Around 100 employees at the Herford site and approximately 120 in Paderborn are affected by the agreement.
Severance tiers and extra payments
Payouts are structured according to length of service. Workers will receive between 50 and 70 percent of their gross monthly salary for each year of employment, capped at €150,000 per person. There is also an incentive for staff who waive their right to challenge the dismissals through legal action — those who do so receive a bonus of 20 percent of one month's pay per year of service.
The package goes beyond basic severance. Families get a one-off payment of €3,000 per child, and employees will be paid for 90 percent of their accumulated overtime hours. For those who stay on to handle clearing-up duties at the closing sites, an extra €1,000 per month has been written into the agreement.
Warstein option on the table
The group's Warsteiner brewery, also part of Haus Cramer, is offering a lifeline to affected staff. Fifty jobs are available at the company's headquarters in the Sauerland region, and relocation costs will be covered up to €3,500. Commuters who make the journey can claim a flat rate of 35 cents per kilometre.
Despite these enticements, local politicians Christian Dahm, Christian Obrock and Eva Hellmann doubt that many workers will make the move to Warstein. Dismissal notices will be issued in stages — redundancies at Herford can begin no earlier than September, while the process in Paderborn starts from November.
A 150-year tradition draws to a close
The agreement marks the end of nearly a century and a half of beer production in Hiddenhausen, where the final 40,000 crates of Herforder Pils rolled off the line on 30 July 2026 before the bottling plant was shut down. Dismantling of the machinery at the Hiddenhausen-Sundern facility is scheduled to start early next week. The Herforder brand itself will continue, with production and bottling shifting to Warstein.
The food and beverage union NGG used the occasion to criticise Haus Cramer's overall corporate strategy. Stefan Schwartze, a Social Democrat MP, repeated his view that the closure was a mistake but acknowledged the union's work and noted that apprentices have been taken on by the Barre brewery. Joachim Ebmeyer of the Christian Democrats called the shutdown a heavy blow for the region, while conceding that the agreement gives employees financial certainty.
Looking ahead, Haus Cramer plans to restructure its association membership, with a return to the Brewers' Association of North Rhine-Westphalia scheduled for 2029.
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