Brewery rises from the ashes following fire

A Salford brewery has risen from the ashes and is on track to double its turnover one year on from a devastating fire.

First Chop Brewing Arm was forced to leave its original home in Orsdall Lane following a fire in October 2016, suffering around £250,000 worth of damage.

Seven months on and First Chop has now re-located to a 5,000 ss ft building on Barton Hall Industrial Estate in Eccles – doubling its capacity – and is on track to double its turnover from £500,000 before the fire to around £1m over the next 12 months.

The firm – which brews ten different gluten-free ales – is expanding its customer base around the UK and Europe, from the Campanile Hotel in Salford to names such as the Co-op and Mexican food chain Wahaca.

The brewery has also recently agreed its first exporting deal to a distributor in Italy.

First Chop Brewing Arm became fully operational again in May after a seven month break, in which time the firm’s insurance enabled them to continue paying their five staff while they did training courses to expand their brewing knowledge.

To mark the one-year milestone and celebrate the firm’s recovery, managing director and founder Rik Garner has launched a Salford Pale Ale that is being sold at the Campanile Hotel in Manchester as part of an agreement to sell its other two beers, RED, a Salford red ale and POP a Citrus IPA.

He said: “The feel-good factor is brewing for First Chop at the minute, and we are delighted to have launched the Salford Pale Ale at the Campanile Hotel in Salford, as the hotel is next door to First Chop’s original home where it all started.

“The brewery in Salford was written off this time last year, it was a dark day for First Chop, but we’ve come back even stronger.

“Business was going well before the fire with a turnover of £500,000, so we were determined to keep fighting on.

“Before finding our own place we were able to rent some space at another local brewery one day a week to stay partly-operational and retain our client base.

“After our own investment and help from our insurers, we have now been able to move into new, larger premises that will allow us to ramp up our brewing capacity to up to 20,000 litres a week.

“While local independent pubs and off licenses are our bread and butter, over the next few months we will be looking at growing nationwide and in to export markets.

“We have developed our processes and implemented such strict quality control at our new premises that we can now test and certificate all our beer as gluten free. That makes our product widely accessible to more people, such as those with celiac disease who can’t currently drink beer, while retaining a rich taste.”

Craig Hodgkinson, general manager at the Campanile Hotel in Salford, added: “We have visitors in from all over the globe and are keen to showcase what our local area has to offer, which is why we have built up a close relationship with First Chop.

“These beers offer something different to others that we sell, and we believe they’ll go down a treat with our customers.”