Carlsberg

Meet the Brewing Director involved in transforming Somersby into hand sanitizer during COVID-19

Have you ever wondered what is involved in brewing in Carlsberg?
Meet Anders – he is the Brewing Director in our Danish brewery, and he took part in transforming Somersby cider into hand sanitizer during the peak of COVID-19. He has been working for Carlsberg for the past 25 years in multiple positions both in Denmark and the U.K. We are eager to hear about his experience working on such a project during COVID-19 and how he in general has grown as a Carlsberg employee for the past 25 years. 

Can you tell us more about how you got involved in the production of hand sanitizer?
“During COVID-19 the beer volumes were low, so it was a great initiative to start an alcohol base production making hand sanitizer in order to help the Danish society fight COVID-19. The initiative led the Carlsberg employees to collaborate in new, supportive, and innovative ways. It was great to experience how we could pull on resources from everywhere in the business and how people immediately stepped in to help. 

Overall, we only managed to transform the cider to hand sanitizer because of the exceptional cross-functional team performance, where people were pulled together from different departments and backgrounds. It was great to experience such great team performance and collaboration for an overall greater societal purpose, where each employee’s work made a huge difference for the Danish society needing hand sanitizer”. 

What development initiatives have you taken part in and how have they contributed to your job role?
“Working abroad and cross-country has given me a much broader perspective on how to fulfill my tasks. Working with people from different parts of the business has overall given me a more holistic view and improved my understanding of the business. This understanding has allowed me to transfer the best practices from one country to another. As a brewer, I’ve also developed by making new products like cider. 7 years ago, that was a new and exciting thing to produce, so from a professional perspective, it's always an exciting and developing experience to make a new product”.

How would you describe Carlsberg as a workplace? 
“Throughout my time with Carlsberg, I’ve experienced great development both in terms of participating in exciting brewmaster projects such as creating Somersby and Jacobsen, but also by working abroad and in general collaborating with multi-cultural colleagues across the company. The work environment is very open and friendly, and it’s deeply integrated into our culture to help one another. This great environment is also part of the reason why I’m still here after 25 years.  

If I were to describe what it’s like to be a Carlsberg employee with one word, I would use the word pride. Pride in terms of our great history but also in terms of how Carlsberg is still contributing to society by for example making hand sanitizer or being involved in multiple voluntary projects around Copenhagen. During COVID-19 it has become very clear how the organisation truly cares for the society”.