Boost for local beer brewers
AS BEER drinkers on Teesside prepare to toast the New Year, North-east brewers are bracing themselves against some of the biggest price rises ever seen in the industry.
But forecasts that a standard pint could reach a knee-wobbling £4 in 2008 may hold a silver lining for the region’s smallest producers, as drinkers go in search of a more specialist, home-grown jar.
The predicted price hike - from today’s average of around £2.20 a pint - is blamed on the spiraling cost of malt and hops, combined with above inflation rises in fuel and steel costs, affecting can and keg prices.
The sobering effect on profits has seen a rash of downbeat trading statements and acquisition and disposal activity.
Scottish and Newcastle warned last week that the industry faced a “challenging year,” with pubs which had already suffered from the effects of the smoking ban, now facing the prospect of a dry football season, as England¹s failure to qualify for the European Championships keeps fans away from bars.
“Many pubs are struggling small businesses with other costs as well as the price of beer,” said Mr Pollard.
Mark Hastings, director of communications at the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), who told BBC Radio 4¹s Today programme that a dramatic increase in plantings of crops for biofuels were squeezing beer’s raw materials out.
But Nick Stafford, managing director of Hambledon Ales in Thirsk, which brews under licence for Darlington’s Village Brewer and Whitby’s Black Dog brewery, said local brewers, had quietly been enjoying year-on-year growth of 10%, despite rising costs.
“If you want a local success story, it’s local brewers,” he said.
And he predicted that micro brewers would continue to prosper.
“The national trend in consumption has been declining, but in terms of people buying local beer it’s growing. You don’t hear about it because micro brewers are a minute part of the industry - they produce just 2% of all the ale in the UK.”
Hambledon now bottles on behalf of 20 Yorkshire brewers and the figure is rising. “More and more local breweries are putting beer in bottles,” said Mr Stafford.
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