From crop to shelf

The beverages that are sold at Systembolaget come from every corner of the world. Many people work to produce and deliver the beverages. We examine this complex chain here.

A beverage sold at Systembolaget goes through several different steps before it makes it to a shelf at our store. Simplified, the chain look like this:

  1. The crop is grown on a farm – grapes for wine, grain for beer, potatoes and sugar for spirits.
  2. the producer of the beverage is a winery, a brewery or a distillery. Here the crop is refined into a beverage. Many producers also own farms.
  3. The producer obtains packaging (bottles, boxes, cans) and seals (corks and caps) from subcontractors.
  4. The drink is transported to Sweden. The buyer is not Systembolaget, but rather our supplier. Sometimes the producer and the supplier is the same company, for example large brewing companies.
  5. Our supplier has an agreement with Systembolaget and makes sure that the beverage arrives at the stores.

There is a chain like this for each beverage. When you consider that you can buy around 19,000 beverages from almost 100 countries at Systembolaget, it is clear that a vast number of people, working at thousands of farms and production facilities, are involved along the way.