BEER AND LAŠKO BREWERY 1

After several purchases and sales by real estate speculators, the company was finally bought in 1889 by a brewer with a heart and soul. At that time, SIMON KUKEC already owned a brewery in Žalec. He immediately merged both production facilities into a single company named ZDRUŽENE PIVOVARNE ŽALEC IN LAŠKI TRG (Engl. UNITED BREWERIES ŽALEC AND LAŠKI TRG). In 1903, presumably for economic reasons, he decided to restructure his new brewery into a joint-stock company. He remained the owner of a third of the shares in the new company, named ZDRUŽENE PIVOVARNE ŽALEC IN LAŠKI TRG D. D., and continued to manage the brewery.

FIG. 1: Simon Kukec’s brewery on a postcard from 1889.

After the “brewing war” of 1927, the people of Laško, and especially the caterers and hoteliers, missed their “old” brewery. They called a meeting of all the catering cooperatives in Slovenia and unanimously decided to build a new joint-stock GOSTILNIČARSKA PIVOVARNA (Engl. TAVERN BREWERY) in Laško.

FIG. 2: Kukec’s brewers in 1898. In Laško, Simon Kukec had the idea for a new type of beer. He had a contract with the owner of the Laško thermal baths, Theodor Gunkl, for a regular supply of thermal water. From it, the brewers brewed the so-called Thermal Beer. The exceptional quality of all Kukec’s beers is confirmed by numerous awards.