Good news for all energy drink fans! Red Bull plant starts production 50 kilometers outside Berlin

What is planned in Baruth/Mark

In Baruth/Mark (Teltow-Fläming district), about 50 kilometers south of Berlin, the town council approved the new development plan on Thursday. Twelve voted in favor, two against, and one abstained. This clears the way for the Red Bull and Rauch can factory. Canning has been a long-standing practice in Baruth, but the cans themselves have previously come from elsewhere. In the future, they will be produced right next door, on the same site. The two Austrian companies describe the investment as being in the hundreds of millions of euros.

The price is already set: 17 hectares of pine forest next to the existing buildings will have to be cleared. Nevertheless, for a town of around 4,000 inhabitants, the job figures are significant. Up to 600 people are expected to work there after the expansion—almost twice as many as today.

Over 400,000 doses per hour

And the plant is already running at full capacity: More than 400,000 cans and over 100,000 PET bottles rush through the bottling line every hour. After the expansion, that number is expected to increase even further. So, anyone who pulls a can out of the fridge at the corner store is quite likely holding a piece of Brandenburg in their hand.

Why the whole thing was stopped in between

The project didn't go entirely smoothly. The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court overturned the original development plan – on formal grounds. The core issue was noise control regulations. An urgent application by the environmental association Grüne Liga was successful, and the project was put on hold.

The city then made a second attempt and submitted a new plan. A vote has now been held on this plan.

The dispute over groundwater continues.

However, this doesn't mean the situation is calm. A network of environmental groups fears that water will become scarce in the region. The Baruth Resource Alliance is demanding a new assessment of the groundwater levels – the existing one is 20 years old. Only a current study can show whether too much water is already being extracted. Incidentally, the Austrians also acquired the water rights. In 2023, Red Bull and Rauch took over the then-struggling beverage bottler Urstromquelle. This included the extraction rights and a corresponding contract with the city. They are permitted to extract approximately 2.35 million cubic meters of groundwater per year.

Project coordinator Björn Hofbauer recently told rbb: "We take the issue of water very seriously." Around 6,500 cubic meters per day are permitted, but only 5,500 to 6,000 are actually used. The city and state environmental agencies are monitoring the situation closely. The city itself calculates that at most a quarter of the available water is used in the region, based on hydrogeological assessments. Furthermore, the city emphasizes that supplying the population takes priority over industry.