How a Spanish Brewing Company Uses Tech to Guide Its Business Strategy

Why It Matters

The move positions Hijos de Rivera as a tech‑enabled consumer‑goods player, unlocking new revenue streams and strengthening relationships with the hospitality sector. It also showcases how legacy brands can leverage data and AI to drive growth without sacrificing identity.

Key Takeaways

• Four‑pillar strategy drives tech, culture, and business integration
• EstreIA office builds AI models for internal decision‑making
• Be2Bar platform offers bars analytics, loyalty, and energy tools
• Goal: 20,000 hospitality users by mid‑2026
• Digital culture shift prioritized over pure technology upgrades

Pulse Analysis

The beverage industry is undergoing a rapid digital overhaul, as brewers seek to augment traditional production with data‑driven insights and connected services. Consumers now expect personalized experiences, while distributors demand real‑time inventory visibility, prompting companies to invest in cloud platforms, IoT sensors, and advanced analytics. In Europe, family‑owned breweries face the dual challenge of preserving heritage and competing with multinational conglomerates that already exploit sophisticated supply‑chain tools. By embedding technology into every layer of the business, these firms can improve margins, accelerate product innovation, and meet sustainability targets that regulators and investors increasingly require.

Hijos de Rivera’s transformation follows a four‑pillar framework introduced in 2017: continuous improvement, digital business models, open‑innovation ecosystems, and startup collaborations. Central to this agenda is the EstreIA office, which develops proprietary machine‑learning models to turn production, logistics and sales data into actionable intelligence. The company’s reliance on SaaS partners and a broad network of collaborators enables rapid scaling while keeping capital expenditures in check. This data‑first mindset has already streamlined brewing schedules, reduced waste, and provided the executive committee with predictive dashboards that inform everything from raw‑material sourcing to market‑entry decisions.

The flagship Be2Bar platform extends Hijos de Rivera’s digital expertise to the hospitality sector, offering bars and restaurants an integrated suite of management tools, loyalty programs, energy‑usage monitoring and real‑time sales analytics. By delivering actionable recommendations through interactive dashboards, the solution helps operators cut operating costs, improve customer retention, and meet ESG objectives. Targeting 20,000 registered users by mid‑2026, Be2Bar not only creates a new recurring‑revenue stream for the brewer but also deepens its strategic partnership with the on‑premise channel. As the platform scales, it could become a benchmark for how legacy consumer brands monetize data while reinforcing brand loyalty.