Row erupts over brewery's move and pub closure

• • 12 September 2024

The owners of a village brewery have announced they are moving production 20 miles away and closing the in-house pub.

Halewood, the company that owns Hawkshead Brewery in Staveley, Cumbria, said the current site was unsustainable and parking charges introduced by the landlord made the on-site bar unprofitable.
Four bar staff would lose their job, the company said, with brewery workers being offered the opportunity to move to the new site in Flookburgh.
But landlord David Brockbank said attempts to engage with the company were met with a "wall of silence" and disputed claims the parking charges impacted trade.
Halewood said the pub was shutting with immediate effect and the move to the Flookburgh site was necessary for its beers to be "competitive on price" as it looked to expand its products.

Community brewery
A Halewood spokesman said the leased Staveley site was not energy efficient and its manually operated equipment would be "unable to cope with the increased volumes" of production.
They added parking charges introduced by Mr Brockbank's company had "deterred customers" of the Hawkshead Bar, which was also leased.
But Mr Brockbank said since the charges were introduced in March, they had recorded "an incredibly steady" number of customers.
He added he was exploring the possibility of creating a community brewery and pub there instead, but that would require support from Halewood.
He said: "After enjoying the support of our community for many years, we are hopeful they will see fit to pay that back by leaving the unit intact."

Hawkshead Brewery opened in 2002 in a barn in the village of Hawkshead and moved to the Staveley site in 2006.
Halewood bought the brewery in 2017 and opened a site in Flookburgh the following year, adding a new distillery there last year.
Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron said he felt the Hawkshead staff had been treated poorly, having been given short notice of the changes.
He added he was "gutted" about Halewood's decision.
"It feels the company have let down - even betrayed - that community, that village, which has underpinned them and helped them make the reputation that they have," he said.

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Business makes a business decision. Not sure there is anything to see here though newspaper articles always put an emotional slant on any story and tries to paint a villain and a victim. If the parent company has other facilities that are doing brewing activities then it makes perfect sense to consolidate the production side of things, especially when costs are increasing.

Shame for the locals who probably really value having the brewery and pub on their doorstep, I'd be gutted if I were a local there, but hopefully the site will create a great opportunity for some other growing business looking to expand.

With the number of breweries and pubs facing closure and really really challenging times right now, with no sign of things easing in the short to medium term, I'm not going to criticise any company that is doing what it need to do to survive or thrive.

hoppyscotty said:

Business makes a business decision. Not sure there is anything to see here though newspaper articles always put an emotional slant on any story and tries to paint a villain and a victim. If the parent company has other facilities that are doing brewing activities then it makes perfect sense to consolidate the production side of things, especially when costs are increasing.

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From my, admittedly limited, understanding of the situation it seems the main gripe is that the parent company (a multi-national company with a turnover of over £100million) is trying to squeeze out more profit at the detriment of the staff, customers and heritage of the brand.

The suggestion is that they've not tried particularly hard to make the existing brewery/tap room more economically viable and have simply chosen the path of least resistance.

They've also got a bit of history with questionable business decisions - there were 12 redundancies made during the pandemic that appear to have received quite negative press, presumably because they chose that path rather than seeking furlough options, etc.

How many of the smaller breweries that get bought up by a national brewery/large company survive more than a few years?
Would Hawkshead have gone bust had Halewood not bought them? I do often wonder why small breweries allow themselves to be gobbled up by a big company, are the owners just thinking about their own back pockets or the "good" of the brewery?

Cheers Tom

They've not done anything at the expense of anything...any business serves to make a return and profit...they're not charities...employees are a resource just like anything else...that is a very harsh way to view things I know, especially if you're losing your job, but there are millions of businesses that no longer exist with the loss of far more jobs where people have tried to 'minimise' impact on the staff. Those who have lost their jobs will get other jobs in no time and whatever new business comes up in their place will offer new fresh opportunities.

Customers are customers...they overwhelmingly vote with their wallets. A small proportion, too small to sustain any business by themselves, wont assign significant value to anything outside of the quality offered at the price point. That is why so many craft breweries fail...people forget that first and foremost they are businesses and need to be run like businesses despite all the fluffy romantic stuff like 'passion', 'serving the community', 'keeping traditions alive' and all that stuff. That appeals to us on here as that is what floats our boats, but you offer up a goldfish bowl of bright blue alcoholic liquid at a silly price and you'll fill your pub with kids at the snap of your fingers paying for jelly shots and vodka red bulls...offer up 20 taps and 5 hand pumps of craft beer and real ale options and you'll get a small number of enthusiasts half of which demanding their CAMERA discount, a few passing dog walkers and thats about it and you'll be out of business in a year. Clearly the answer lies somewhere in between those two extremes.

I know that most of us if we ran our own craft brewery with tap room or attached pub, would bust a gut to prioritise the staff...thats because we wouldn't have gone into the venture viewing it as a business first and foremost...and that is why most of us would fail and why most of us are not already running our own successful breweries and brew pubs/taprooms....Its a tough brutal business that takes no prisoners.

For all the pubs and bars around me that focus on craft and real ale (and there are more than you can throw a crappy stick at) their best selling beer by a country mile is whatever cheap macro lager on offer. Often even the cheap wine options or Gin and tonics typically consumed by the WAGS of the real ale or craft beer drinkers outsell the craft and real ale. Depressing I know but it's the reality.

hoppyscotty said:

They've not done anything at the expense of anything.

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I'm sorry but that statement is simply not true - they have quite literally made a decision to pursue one path at the expense of the existing employees (those that are being made redundant) and the customers in the local area.

None of us will ever know the full story and be able to make a concrete judgement on whether it was the right decision or not though. It may very well be that they felt they had no choice but to make a cold, calculated business decision, as you suggest. However, the outcry in the local community and from those that have worked their in the past indicate there may be more to it than that, which is all I was trying to highlight.

It would be interesting to know if their financial models considered the damage this move would have on the brand reputation and subsequent impact that may have on future sales.

OK I meant that their fundamental motive was not to stiff the workforce...again overly emotive language used in the press article to paint a villain as every good story needs a villain and a victim and it doesn't get more villainous than big bad evil corporations, even if they are not big bad and evil. They're making impartial decisions purely on what the business requires in all liklihood.

They're not trying to preserve the workforce particularly or to specifically make people redundant - ideally any business wants more people not fewer. They have a bottom line to satisfy and they will have a need to take cost out of the business and they will have considered many different potential ways to achieve that and settled on the one that works best for them given many constraining factors that ultimately constrain their decision. The reality is that in the hospitality business one of the biggest costs is the cost is the workforce as its quite people heavy, so when cost has to be taken out of the business then it is inevitable that there is focus on the workforce, which ultimately means redundancies unfortunately. That's just the realities of business.

This is all generic anyway I have no insider knowledge on this particular situation, but the press article is clearly specifically designed to paint a villain and a victim. Heavy on intimation, light on any fact or specifics, having such little to go off they've filled a non-story' into a story by filling the gaps with a bit of storytelling.

hoppyscotty said:

If the parent company has other facilities that are doing brewing activities then it makes perfect sense to consolidate the production side of things, especially when costs are increasing.

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They have opened a new brewery not moved into an existing one they already owned -

Four bar staff would lose their job, the company said, with brewery workers being offered the opportunity to move to the new site in Flookburgh.

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Just as an aside, if I had to pay to park at a pub, I'd be finding another one.

I have no issue having to check my car in though.

It's bad enough having to drive and only being able to have a pint, leave alone having to pay for the privilege.