Moorhouse’s set to wave growth wand

MOORHOUSE’S Brewery – famous for its Pendle Witches brands – reckons the new trend ‘micro-pubs’ could be the right magic for growth.

Managing director David Grant has spoken of the challenges of a volatile market-place as the historic Burnley company is poised to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

Sales are expected to have hit a record high over Halloween, the witching season is  Moorhouse’s busiest time  of the year.

But while announcing growth of 6% for the last financial year with a turnover of near £6m Grant revealed that Moorhouse’s is “caught in a perfect storm” as more than 20 pubs close each week while micro-brewers mushroom at a rate of some 12 a month. He believes it is now essential to grow a tied pub estate.

Currently, the brewery owns four community pubs and has recently looked at acquiring small pub groups in the North.

However, with the traditional pub model struggling, one route to a health future for the modern 1,000 barrel-a-week capacity brewery could lie with the newly emerging ‘micro-pubs’ concept, where small outlets open in former shops to primarily sell cask ales.

“We now have our championship beers on the national stage with pubs in the south and prestigious London venues,” he said.

“But, to survive as an emerging regional brewer, our challenge is to sell more beer in line with our new brewery plan when we invested to treble capacity five years ago.

“Having our own pubs is one way we can move forward. The whole pub and beer industry has changed immeasurably in the past few years.

“The number of micro breweries has tripled due to generous tax relief, giving them a trading advantage over bigger brewers. And they all seeking local business – yet the number of pubs has fallen dramatically.

“We are being caught in a perfect storm with a shrinking market and it is hard to see where the future lies for traditional pubs.”

Grant is now looking at shops or small spaces in good strategic locations to open micro-pubs to compliment the traditional pub model.

“These pubs would be in our core northern area, possibly as far afield as York or Chester, and could operate for 48 hours a week,” he said.

“We would sell the very best quality beers – both ours and guest ales – and have a limited but first class wine and food offering.”

Moorhouse’s delivers directly to pubs through the North of England and nationally through wholesalers and pub companies.

The brewery is now seeing a sales surge for bottled beers with new business in UK supermarkets while inroads are also being made in the emerging markets of China, Russia and Australia.