A survey on the performance of the Italian brewing companies

The paper analyzes the performance of a sample of Italian microbreweries. For small and very small companies, performance analyses represent an important tool for the investigation of both the efficiency and the survival chances of the companies in the medium and long term. The methodology used consists of calculating different profit- ability and productivity indexes followed by a DEA model for the evaluation of the com- panies’ efficiency. The results show that the companies operate at significantly low pro- ductivity levels and in conditions of technical inefficiency, due to both the inability of the managers to manage the inputs and the fact that companies operate at sub-optimal levels of scale. Lastly, profitability turns to be positive for two out of three indexes examined.