Tuborg Brewery, Tuborgs Fabrikker A/S, opened in 1875, founded by two of Denmark’s leading industrialists at the time, Philip W. Heiman and C. F. Tietgen, as a truly innovative and ambitious enterprise. Situated on the coast in Hellerup just north of Copenhagen, it was established as an impressive “vertically integrated” production conglomerate, including a coal-fired power plant, a malting plant, a glass works (for the bottles used for export), a soft drink factory, the brewery itself, and a complete harbor installation, providing easy access to the export markets.
Tuborg’s first beer was “Rød Tuborg” (Tuborg Red), the brewery’s interpretation of the dark, Bavarian-style bottom-fermented lager that was the dominant beer style in Denmark at the time. But Tuborg’s real claim to fame was the introduction of the pilsner in Denmark with “Grøn Tuborg” (Tuborg Green) in 1880—today the most popular beer in the country.
Tuborg formally merged with “big brother” Carlsberg in 1970, but the two had had very close links since 1903, when the two companies entered into a (initially secret) profit-sharing agreement. Production at the original location in Hellerup continued until it was closed in the 1990s. Since then Tuborg has been brewed at the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen and at Carlsberg’s Fredericia Brewery in Jutland, which today is the only brewery in Denmark brewing Tuborg.
In the 1970s, television commercials introduced Tuborg Gold to Americans, who were assured that it was “the golden beer of Danish Kings,” although the beer was actually being brewed in the United States. In the Danish market Tuborg overtook Carlsberg in sales in the 1980s, driven by a fresh, young, modern marketing campaign. Tuborg is not only bigger than Carlsberg in Denmark but is also sold in more than 70 countries worldwide, often brewed locally in many of these countries and used as “the fighting brand,” meaning a brand strategically priced so as to best compete against local competition.