Demand prompts brewery expansion
CHESHIRE brewery Weetwood Ales has tripled production at a new purpose-built site after securing a £300,000 loan from the Co-operative Bank.
The brewery, which has annual sales of £1m, said it moved to Kelsall, near Delamere Forest, because it could not keep up with demand at its former site at nearby Weetwood Common.
Turnover has grown from £860,000 in 2011-12 and sales for the first two months of 2013 are 24% up on the same period last year.
Directors Roger Langford and Adrian Slater employ eight people and produce 21,500 pints of ales including Eastgate Ale, Old Dog, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and the award-winning Oast House Gold.
Mr Slater said: “Before moving we had grown to the point that we were so busy we weren’t even trying to sell beer but people kept on approaching us and we were brewing seven days a week to keep up with demand.
“We bought the land ourselves but we needed to fund the building of the brewery, a new office and more brewing equipment so we approached The Co-operative Bank who were very supportive. We’ve now got so much space we’ve been able to scale up by three times so whereas we used to produce 360 gallons per brew we’re now producing triple that.”
The business sells to 160 pubs across the North West and Midlands. The loan was arranged by relationship manager Paula Brown at the Co-operative Bank’s Manchester Corporate Banking Centre.
