Neumarkter Lammsbräu: Responsibility Across Generations

Running a company with nearly 400 years of history is far more than a management task for Johannes Ehrnsperger. It is a responsibility that demands reverence. At 35, he is the seventh generation owner of Neumarkter Lammsbräu and has led the company since 2018. For him, the long history of the family business is not an end in itself but a commitment: each generation has shaped Neumarkter Lammsbräu while passing it on to the next with foresight. Looking back therefore always means looking ahead – asking how tradition, quality, and long term viability can be meaningfully combined.

Written by Stefan Jablonka

A man with short blond hair, wearing a green suit and a white T-shirt, stands in front of an exhibition booth bearing the inscription “Neumarkter Lammsbräu”.

A “future proof world” as a guiding principle

The family business’s ambition is clearly defined. Neumarkter Lammsbräu follows the guiding principle of a “future proof world” – a future that remains livable for generations to come. For Johannes Ehrnsperger, this idea is inseparably linked to his responsibility to hand over the company in a condition that ensures long term resilience.

Family owned businesses, he believes, do not think in quarters but in generations. “We are simply holding the baton for a limited time,” says Ehrnsperger. What matters most is passing the company on at least as strong as it was received – ecologically, economically, and culturally. “You have only borrowed your company from your descendants and must return it to them.” Future proofing therefore means more than environmental and resource protection; it also includes economic stability, lived values, and giving the next generation the freedom to find its own path.

A man with short blond hair and a beige shirt is holding a full beer glass in his left hand and a beer bottle labeled “Neumarkter Lammsbräu” in his right hand. — Neumarkter Lammsbräu represents entrepreneurial responsibility with a long term, multi generational perspective.

BIOFACH as a place for collective action

Ehrnsperger sees exactly such a place in BIOFACH. For Neumarkter Lammsbräu, it is a central meeting point for the organic sector – far more than a pure product trade fair. “BIOFACH is the platform for the organic industry,” he explains. Manufacturers, retailers, processors, associations, and other stakeholders come together here to exchange ideas, learn from one another, develop new perspectives, and jointly advance future oriented topics. The trade fair provides a space where key industry issues become visible, open to debate, and enriched with new momentum.

According to Ehrnsperger, the focus has long moved beyond traditional business deals: “Networking is central, trends are central.” In his view, the challenges facing the organic sector—and society as a whole – can only be addressed together. BIOFACH offers the appropriate framework for this: a platform for dialogue, orientation, and mutual inspiration.

Partnership on equal terms

This mindset is also reflected in Ehrnsperger’s collaboration with NürnbergMesse. Rather than a classic exhibitor organiser relationship, he describes it as a partnership based on exchange at eye level. “We have always experienced a high degree of appreciation from NürnbergMesse,” he says. The organiser actively seeks dialogue, asks for assessments and future focused topics, and integrates these insights into the ongoing development of BIOFACH.

A particularly memorable moment was the visit of NürnbergMesse’s management team to the Neumarkter Lammsbräu brewery in Neumarkt. The open exchange on sustainability, values, and the future of BIOFACH sent a clear signal that the trade fair sees its exhibitors not merely as participants, but as partners whose perspectives are taken seriously and actively incorporated.

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Author

Stefan Jablonka

Freelance journalist

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Neumarkter Lammsbräu: Responsibility Across Generations

Running a company with nearly 400 years of history is far more than a management task for Johannes Ehrnsperger. It is a responsibility that demands reverence. At 35, he is the seventh generation owner of Neumarkter Lammsbräu and has led the company since 2018. For him, the long history of the family business is not an end in itself but a commitment: each generation has shaped Neumarkter Lammsbräu while passing it on to the next with foresight. Looking back therefore always means looking ahead – asking how tradition, quality, and long term viability can be meaningfully combined.

Written by Stefan Jablonka

A “future proof world” as a guiding principle

BIOFACH as a place for collective action

Partnership on equal terms

Entering the organic movement

In the late 1970s, Johannes Ehrnsperger’s father, Franz Ehrnsperger, faced the question of how to guide a small regional brewery sustainably into the next generation. The answer was as simple as it was consistent: better beer through better raw materials. This conviction led Neumarkter Lammsbräu into the organic movement early – long before organic products became a trend. For Johannes Ehrnsperger, the sector has retained a keen sense for relevant developments and issues to this day.

A meeting place for a responsible sector

For Neumarkter Lammsbräu, sustainability is not a buzzword but lived responsibility. For Ehrnsperger, BIOFACH has therefore long been the ideal meeting place for a sector that works together to find answers to key future questions – as a “platform for sustainable agriculture and food systems.”