Dry January for Britain’s Breweries as Several Announce Closure

In only the first month of 2024, a glut of UK breweries have already announced plans to close or scale back operations. Hot on the heels of a rough year for hospitality and manufacturing, 2024 has unfortunately begun in similar fashion.

A number of craft beer breweries announced their closures or cut-back methods within a few days of one another recently. Lossiemouth-based Windswept Brewing Co, was one of the first to succumb to economic conditions, revealing that they’d be closing their doors by the end of the month. Their online shop closing on the 29^th, and their taproom calling last orders on the 3^rd February. Co-founders, Al Read and Nigel Tiddy, explained that “spiralling energy and raw material costs and falling sales throughout the craft beer industry, caused largely by the cost-of-living crisis, have left us in a position where we are no longer able to ride out the storm”.

Soon afterwards, North Brewing Company in Leeds appointed administrators after their founders admitted that like “the rest of the hospitality and brewing world”, their brewery had been hit by rising interest rates, Brexit, COVID-19, and the cost-of-living crisis. They were, however, acquired almost immediately afterwards, with their brewery and all but one of their bars saved in the process. Unfortunately, their Birmingham bar wasn’t part of the deal, and 15 staff members had to be made redundant.

Seven Bro7ers, another brewery, also had to put cost-saving measures in place after complaining of rising costs, inflations, and “the lack of government support for the hospitality sector”. They closed their Liverpool taphouse “for the foreseeable future” but were able to keep their other four taphouses open.

More January bad news followed with the news that Manchester-based Squawk Brewing Company is set to cease production at the end of March. Once their landlord served notice on their premises, the brewery declared it was “the last straw” after their utility bills had already increased by £8,000 each month. Its founder, Oliver Turton, also bemoaned the financial impact of the pandemic, Brexit, and the cost of grain being affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Even craft-brewing giant, Brewdog have had to make moves to protect their business. A letter to staff was leaked online by trade union, Unite Hospitality, which explained that they would no longer offer the Real Living Wage to their workforce. The leaked letter read that “despite many efforts in the last 12 months to reduce our spending we still need to find more ways to get this business back to profitability and the financial stability that is needed”.

Predictably, this instability in the brewing world has also been mirrored by the UK’s bars and clubs. Revolution Bars Group announced that it’s set to shut eight sites, Rekom, the UK’s largest nightclub operator has appointed administrators, and Stonegate, who own more than 4500 pubs nationwide, are said to be dealing with £2.6 billion worth of debt.

Forbes Burton’s Managing Director, Rick Smith, suggested that “Shrinking sales in Dry January might make it the obvious month to announce closures and cutbacks, but its just one small challenge in a series of much larger ones that the brewing industry has had to tackle in recent years. As many owners have suggested, the cost-of-living crisis and rising operating costs have made recovering from the forced closures seen in the pandemic very difficult indeed”.

For the craft-brewing industry, January’s struggles act as an ominous portent for the rest of the year. After a huge rise in popularity pre-pandemic, we could be set to see many fall by the wayside as economic conditions make it difficult for all but the healthiest businesses to survive.

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