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First bottles roll off St Austell Brewery's new
13 July 2009
St Austell Brewery is celebrating the first bottles of beer
rolling off its brand new £700,000 in-house bottling line, thanks
in part to investment by the South West RDA.
Specialist builders, engineers and the Brewery's own team have
been busy since February installing, commissioning and testing the
new bottling line at the Brewery's St Austell headquarters. This
week the first bottles of Tribute began to roll off - destined for
shops, off licences and supermarket shelves across UK.
The bottling line represents a major investment by Cornwall's
biggest brewer and has been driven by soaring demand for its
award-winning ales both regionally and nationally. It comes in the
same year as the Brewery was awarded the prestigious title of
Regional Brewer of the Year in The Publican Awards.
Roger Ryman, St Austell Brewery Head Brewer, said: "We are
absolutely thrilled at the growing level of demand for our bottled
beers, which has been the driving force behind installing our own
in-house bottling line. It has been a major investment for the
Brewery and a technically challenging project for the team so to
see the bottling line up and running on schedule is really
exciting.
"It now puts us in a strong position to continue to grow our
brands like Tribute and opens up the opportunity for further
innovation by our Brewing team such as limited edition runs of
special ales."
Sales of St Austell's flagship Tribute Ale have risen for eight
consecutive years since its launch in 2001, and by an amazing 20
per cent in the past 12 months, continuing the meteoric success of
the beer which has become the first and only Cornish beer to make
it into the UK Top 10 of premium cask ales.
The new bottling plant supplied by Krones will allow the Brewery
to meet existing and future demand regionally and nationally for
its bottled ales.
The line will have initial capacity to bottle up to 100,000
bottles a week and as well as its flagship Tribute Ale it will also
package the Brewery's range of award-winning bottled beers
including Admiral's Ale, Proper Job IPA, HSD and Clouded
Yellow.
Longer term it is hoped the new bottling line will provide a
valuable facility to other South West drinks producers who
currently have their produce bottled out of county.
The project has been supported by an £180,000 investment by the
South West RDA (Regional Development Agency) through its Grant for
Business Investment (GBI) programme and has helped secure 29 jobs,
created five new jobs and brings significant environmental benefits
to the Brewery's operations.
Stephen Bohane, Head of Business Development in Cornwall for the
South West RDA, said: "The new bottling line is an impressive
addition to St Austell Brewery's operations in Cornwall and is an
example of a valuable investment which would not have taken place
without the support of a grant through the GBI scheme.
"St Austell Brewery makes an important contribution to the
economy of the South West and we are pleased to be able to support
this investment and the economic and environmental benefits it
brings."
The start of production on the bottling line represents the
second major investment by St Austell Brewery in 2009 following the
opening in January of the Brewery's new Cornwall Distribution
Centre, at St Columb, as the regional hub for storage and
distribution to the 2,000 pubs, clubs, hotels and other licensed
premises supplied by the Brewery in Cornwall and West Devon.
Having its own bottling plant also brings with it environmental
benefits in line with St Austell Brewery's aim to be one of the
UK's greenest brewing and pub companies. It will cut thousands of
road miles to third-party bottling plants and has enabled the
Brewery to introduce new bottles which are 25 per cent lighter,
bringing considerable energy and resource savings.
The Brewery Visitor Centre features a new viewing window
allowing visitors to see the plant in action as part of St
Austell's popular brewery tours.
St Austell Brewery's beers have enjoying huge success with
highlights in just the last 12 months including:
- Sales of Tribute rising for the eighth successive year and
Tribute's making it into the coveted top ten of the UK's premium
cask ales based on sales volumes in Britain's pubs
- A national deal with Waitrose for Tribute to be sold in
selected larger stores across the country - existing national
listings for Tribute with Asda and Sainsbury as well as being sold
across the South West in Tesco, Co-op, Spar and Thresher stores
- Admiral's Ale being voted the best packaged beer in the world
at the International Beer Challenge
- Admiral's Ale securing a national listing with Sainsbury's, in
addition to existing regional listings with Asda and Waitrose.
- St Austell Brewery was selected by Marks and Spencer to brew a
new beer - Cornish IPA - to be sold in its stores and the ale has
gone on to become the bestselling of its new range of regional
beers.
Ends
July 10 2009
Note to editors:
Photography:
Roger Ryman, St Austell Brewery Head Brewer and Stephen Bohane,
Head of Business Development in Cornwall
St Austell Brewery
www.staustellbrewery.co.uk
- Founded in 1851, St Austell Brewery is known to be one of the
oldest businesses in Cornwall
- It is one of only 30 Independently Family Owned Brewers in the
UK.
- The company owns 173 pubs.
- It is the South West's largest wholesale distributor of beer,
ciders, wines, spirits and soft drinks, serving more than 3,000
free trade accounts, from pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels and
other licensed outlets in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and
Dorset.
- The company employs up to 1,000 people including part-time and
seasonal staff.
- The company brews five main cask ale beer brands: Tribute,
Proper Job, Tinners, IPA and HSD.
- The bottled beer range consists of HSD, Tribute, Proper Job,
Admiral's Ale and Clouded Yellow.
- The company markets its cask ales nationally.
- The company also distributes a full range of national br ands
of beers and minerals and a full range of wines and spirits under
the Walter Hicks label.
- The company is a recognised centre of excellence for training,
accredited by the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), offering a
wide range of courses to people who work in the licensed
trade.
For further information, please contact:
Jeremy Mitchell
Head of Marketing Deborah Clark Associates
St Austell Brewery PR on behalf of St Austell Brewery Tel: 01726
627149
e-mail: Jeremy.Mitchell@staustellbrewery.co.uk
Contact Details
Name: John Casey
Tel: 01726 6271459
Email: john@dca-pr.co.uk
Third Party Issuer
St Austell Brewery