Bakewell brewery toasts new finance deal

A Bakewell business which brews Jaipur lager has announced expansion plans with £2m investment in new equipment after securing new funding from Barclays.

Established in 2005, Thornbridge Brewery is headquartered at its Riverside Brewery, but also continues to brew cask beers at its original brewery at Thornbridge Hall, a few minutes’ drive away.

Following a succession of awards, most notably for its flagship beer Jaipur, and seeing demand rocket, the firm invested in the Riverside Brewery in 2009 and continue to develop new craft beers in bottle, keg and cask.

To date Thornbridge beers have won over 350 awards worldwide and are exported to more than 35 countries across the globe. A subsidiary company of the business also runs its own estate of public houses across South Yorkshire.

Simon Walkden, chief financial officer, said: “We need to continue with our investment programme to meet the increasing demand for our beers and to ensure that product quality remains the key focus of our business.

“We’ve invested in new bottling equipment from KHS GmbH, a market leader in filling and packaging lines, as well as additional conditioning tanks and new storage facilities, which will increase capacity and production.”

The company employs 46 staff in Bakewell and turnover is expected to increase by 80%, reaching £10m by 2018.