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You are here: Home / News / The Death Of The Coaster?

The Death Of The Coaster?

June 29, 2009 By Jay Brooks

coaster-square

Most of us take the humble beer coaster for granted. I know I do, even though I have a casual collection of them that probably numbers in the thousands. I say casual because they’re in some boxex in the garage and I’ve never tried to organize them at all. Their formal name is the beermat, and “the first beermats made of cardboard were introduced in 1880 by the German printing company, Friedrich Horn.” Today, there are believed to be something on the order of 5.5 billion coasters worldwide. One company, The Katz Group, absolutely dominates the industry, with an estimated 75% market share.

But the economic crisis has reached the beer coaster now, too, as The Katz Group recently filed for bankruptcy relief in their native Germany. Spiegel reported that no one is sure what will happen to the market if the
Katz Group cannot successfully reorganize through the courts. Though they don’t say so, this has to be one of the worst potential side effects of consolidations and mergers that has been taking place worldwide for decades, with many, if not most, industries becoming increasing concentrated in just a few large corporations.

The BBC also has their take on the story and the ramifications, especially for collectors. The sheer ubiquity of them seems to all but guarantee their survival, but as priorities go, I also can’t see them rising to the top of anybody’s key businesses needing saving, like Wall Street or the auto industry. So if you have a lot of coasters lying around, best hang onto them for now.

coasters

Filed Under: News, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Business, Coasters, Packaging



Comments

  1. Thomas Cizauskas says

    June 30, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Jay,

    When and why did you change the format of the site? I noticed that you were down for awhile. Were you able to port over all of the archives and links? It looks fine … just wondering!

    • Mario (Brewed For Thought) says

      June 30, 2009 at 11:16 pm

      Looks like Jay went to wordpress. I like it. The old format dragged down my computer and cell phone. This one runs much more smoothly.

      • Rory says

        July 1, 2009 at 8:32 am

        While this is cleaner, I do miss all the brewery & info links. Any chance of getting them back?

  2. Michael Reinhardt says

    June 30, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    I was hoping for some “beer mats” when I was in Europe about a month ago, but kept getting napkins. I was a little irritated because I’m a “anything I can get” beer collector. This is definitely a niche article…but one I always welcome.

    >M

  3. Ed says

    July 25, 2009 at 11:28 am

    After reading this info I’m heading back to the Antiques Fair 8/1 at the Washington County Fairgrounds, NY. Last year I picked up 400(!!!) assorted coasters for $10. Hope I can find the same dealer this year. Thanks for the info.

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