Leżajsk Brewery. New owner looking for people willing to work

– I have information from several former brewery employees that they have received offers to return to work in September. Such a call was received by, among others, a warehouse employee or a person directly involved in brewing beer. I was asked for contacts to local companies that provide various services, from cleaning to accounting. I am optimistic, I think it will work out, people will have jobs, and the plant will operate – said Krzysztof Sobejko, mayor of the Leżajsk commune. In his opinion, up to 100 people could count on employment.

In April 2024, Grupa Żywiec signed a conditional agreement to sell shares in Browar Leżajsk to Mycofeast from Great Britain.

Consent to the transaction has already been issued by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

After the transaction is finalized, the company will take control of the further development of the assets in Leżajsk. Mycofeast is involved in industrial biotechnology, using the fermentation process to produce proteins and lipids for food and animal feed production. It is not yet known when production will begin at the Leżajsk plant.

The Leżajsk Brewery ceased operations in August last year. Its owner, Grupa Żywiec, explained this by the difficult market situation related to the decline in beer sales in Poland. At the same time, it was not interested in selling the plant to a competing company. This is how the 45-year history of brewing beer in the Leżajsk brewery ended.

Before the liquidation, the Leżajsk brewery had 110 employees. 83 lost their jobs, those who remained were responsible for maintaining the plant in technical efficiency. Contracts were also terminated with about 300 people from external companies. Before the Żywiec Group gave up beer production in Leżajsk, the commune was interested in taking over the brewery.

Sobejko is not giving up on the Leżajsk tradition of brewing beer. – We are not giving up yet. There is a group of people who are thinking about resuming production in the brewery. The plant has machines and technological lines left, which means the process of reactivating the plant is possible. We will want to talk about it with the new owner. I hope he will want to sit down at the table and talk about expanding the business – said the mayor. For now, he is waiting for the plant to be restarted.

– If we receive money from the reserve of the Ministry of Labour, we will be able to offer the new investor assistance in the form of additional equipment for work stations or training for employees – said Monika Smoleń, director of the PUP in Leżajsk.

In Leżajsk, a city with a population of nearly 14,000, unemployment was 14.1 percent in May. Now, during seasonal work, it hovers around 13.8 percent.

Krzysztof Sobejko believes that the new industry is a chance for the development of the commune. – It is good that another type of production is emerging, but after all it is similar to beer production, because we are talking about processes related to industrial fermentation of biomass. We must also remember that the location of our plant is ideal due to the eastern market. One day the war will end, the Ukrainian market will be absorbent. Foreign companies are already looking for locations in our country to participate in the reconstruction in the future. Ukraine. I see great potential in this, said the mayor.

In Leżajsk, the largest employer employing over 250 people is the district hospital. There are also several manufacturing plants, including the Machine Factory, the Silicate Plant and the Hortino Fruit and Vegetable Processing Plant. In turn, in the Industrial Park of the Leżajsk commune, small and medium-sized enterprises employ about 500 people.