Harrogate brewer pleads for support for national craft beer industry if it is to survive

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The Society of Independent Brewers chairman Ian Fozard said: “Rishi’s bar bill is now well overdue and with new regional lockdowns being threatened, how many more million pints will have to be dumped before urgent financial support is implemented for small brewers – or will they be expected to pick up the tab again?”

“Local brewers have struggled through the Covid crisis and haven’t received anywhere close to the support they need to survive. "

New measures expected today could mean pubs are closed again, seeing hundreds of thousands of pints wasted once more.

It’s estimated that five million pints of beer from small independent breweries were poured away during lockdown, and when pubs reopened in the summer many global companies decided to replace beer for free, with small breweries expected by pubs to match the same deal.

With most small breweries only being able to reclaim the duty on the beer and then being expected to replace for free, brewers are now out of pocket by a whopping £5 million.

SIBA chairman Mr Fozard, who is the family owner of the award-winning Rooster's Brewing Co at Hornbeam Park in Harrogate, said: "They had to pay for beer that ended up down the drain and were then expected to give free replacements; without help during another lockdown some will have little choice but to give up brewing for good.”

Small independent brewers are calling on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to pay his £5 million ‘bar tab’ as businesses devastated by lockdown measures continue to struggle through the Covid crisis.

Small independent craft breweries complain they have not received the same level of financial support as the wider hospitality sector, including not having access to the Business Rates holiday, hospitality grants, or the Government’s new Job Support Scheme, despite 80% of their sales being lost when pubs were forced to close.

Speculation on the new measures is already seeing sales dry up and the Job Support Scheme announced last week only includes businesses legally closed – not small breweries when beer sales fall off a cliff.

Even more worrying is that when pubs were able to reopen, sales during July were just 50% of what small breweries would usually expect, leading to two small breweries a week closing over the summer.

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