AB InBev will open a café, serving some of its craft beers on the Place du Luxembourg in Ixelles in early 2018. The bio brand Ginette will be the focus for this new establishment. It will replace the sports bar Fat boys, which closed two years ago.
“The Ginette bar will be a “craft and organic” bar that offers alternatives to the classic products. All too often, bio products are falsely linked to a serious message. Our aim is to make sure people have fun and we want a festive atmosphere in our bar”, says Damien Coens, one of the four Ginette co-founders.
The Ginette range of biological beers is developed by wallo-brabançon entrepreneurs. It was sold to AB InBev in autumn 2016. The beers are still produced in Binche for now, but production will be transferred somewhere else when they will need to meet the kind of demand AB InBev is used to.
Opening bio bars was on the cards as soon as the brewery giant bought the company. The Place du Luxembourg establishment will open in February. Other AB InBev craft beers will be on offer, but the group has not said which ones at this stage.
The end of the partnership between AB InBev and Fat boys was very painful. Fat boys sued the brewery giant for 2 million euros, accusing them of delaying their refusal to give them a new rental contract. The Brussels Trade Tribunal eventually turned the Fat boys’ lawsuit down, saying it had no grounds.
However, the tribunal did say that not replying to letters the company managing Fat boys sent them, to request an explanation went against ABI’s “normally careful and diligent commercial behaviour”.
The lawyer for the company managing the Fat boys bar, Mr Arnaud Carlot, said Fat boys is not the only victim of AB InBev’s catering management policy. He mentioned other establishments on Place de la Liberté in Brussels. He criticised the monopolistic situation and called for commercial rental contracts to be regulated.
The Brussels Times
