As they celebrate their upcoming 5th birthday in November, independent craft brewery North Brewing Co unveils their new multi-million pound home in North Leeds.
Springwell, located in a former tannery on Buslingthorpe Lane, sees North Brewing Co double their capacity, open a new 500 person taproom, and move their bar and brewery HQ under one roof.
The careful restoration of the 21,000 square foot factory sympathetically showcases its industrial heritage with a bright, modern brewery.
• North’s brewing output will increase to 16,000 hectolitres (2.8 million pints a year).
• Springwell sees a multi-million pound investment in the local area
• The expansion is creating new jobs and securing many more despite the Covid 19 pandemic
• North have successfully received a Business Growth Programme Fund from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to support the project and generate 7 further jobs in the business.
Springwell will provide a central hub for the brewery and its family of seven bars and taprooms. Springwell will be home to the North HQ with a state of the art office designed in collaboration with Refold and Design Tonic. This space will allow the brewery and bar operations to come under the same roof and provide a training space for bar teams from across the country to learn a little more about North’s beers.
A new Brewery Tap at Springwell
A 500 person capacity taproom will pour draught North beers fresh from the brewery, with festivals, events, brewery tours, street food traders, a merchandise shop, pop up art exhibitions and space for private hire.
• Although the taproom opening has been temporarily delayed by Covid 19, North are preparing to open in a Covid secure manner as soon as the situation allows.
• Table service and app ordering will be a feature.
• The taproom will be home to the hugely successful Eat North street food festivals which will be held at the venue every weekend.
• North are already planning to host a number of beer festivals at the new site in 2021, inviting breweries, friends and collaborators from around the world to Leeds.
Springwell will also be home to the North Brewing Co webshop: an area of the business that has seen growth of 800% so far this year. The webshop offers free delivery on all orders over £20 within a 6 mile radius of the brewery, making it easier than ever to shop local and shop indie this Christmas.
Co-founder John Gyngell commented:
“We are incredibly excited to make the move to Springwell. The last five years have seen fantastic growth at the brewery: We have consistently doubled our production year on year, and have reached the limits of our capacity to brew at our current site. Our strong sales mix including export, supermarkets and online sales has seen us achieve record growth throughout 2020.
The support in Leeds for our business has been phenomenal and we’ve been humbled by the love shown for our brand. We are inspired by breweries in the USA who have created destination taprooms at their breweries, and we cannot wait to do something similar in North Leeds. Creating a hub for North at the brewery will strengthen the connection between our team, bars, brewery and wider community. The bars are currently operating as pop up North Brewing Co bottle shops during lockdown, and have played a massive role in the success of the brewery.”
Whilst 2020 has undoubtedly been the most challenging year of business for North Brewing Co and North Bar Ltd it has seen a number of successes: In March North were crowned ‘Best Brewing Pub Company’ at the prestigious Publican Awards, they were awarded Honest Brew’s ‘People’s Choice’ and ‘Visual Excellence’, and took home ‘Business Innovation’ and ‘Brewery Business of the Year’ at SIBA’s annual conference. In addition to this Jo Wilkinson was named ‘One to Watch’ at the Northern Finance Director Awards, and John Gyngell and Christian Townsley were again listed in the NRB Top 50.
North’s original brewery in Sheepscar will be home to the Taverner’s Walk Small Batch Project: an experimental arm of the brewery allowing North to experiment with barrel ageing, sours and fermentation projects.
North had planned to hold an opening party at Springwell on 27th November. However, in true 2020 style they’re taking the party to Zoom. North have brewed Springwell Lager – their first flagship beer from the new brewery – and will be raising a glass to toast the new site on Friday 27/11/20 at 7pm. Springwell Lager will go on sale on 25/11/20 via their webshop and pop up bottle shops. Full details of the Zoom brewery tour and toast will be released via social media in the run up to the event.
For images and video please see our dropbox folder.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9u783u7j73rr945/AABIiaW2x2Fl1F66Q17zEJm6a?dl=0
North Brewing Co webshop
https://shop.northbrewing.com/
Social Media links
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/northbrewco/
https://www.instagram.com/springwelllds/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/NorthBrewCo
https://twitter.com/SpringwellLDS
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/northbrewingleeds
North Bar Ltd Group
Alfred in Meanwood, Further North in Chapel Allerton, Preston in Oakwood, North Bar Social in Otley, North Bar in Leeds City Centre, North Bar in Harrogate and North Brewing Co Taproom in Leeds City Centre
North Bar and North Brewing Co
North Bar was opened by John Gyngell and Christian Townsley in Leeds in 1997 with the shared vision of blending global craft beer and local breweries, interesting wines and spirits, great quality food and eclectic music and art. North Bar quickly became renowned for its alternative approach, quirky style and excellent, friendly service – winning the prestigious ‘Best places to drink in Britain’ in the Observer Food Monthly Awards.
They have since expanded the North Bar family of bars to seven venues in Leeds and the surrounding area: from Preston Bar nestled in leafy Oakwood to the cycling hub at North Bar Social in Otley and the scandi-inspired North Bar in Harrogate. In 2015 they turned their 10-year dream of making their own beer into a reality by opening a 15bbl brewery, North Brewing Co, featuring a 200-person capacity tap room, just half a mile from their original flagship North Bar in Leeds. North Brewing Co will move to their new home, Springwell on Buslingthorpe Lane, in November 2020.
Press release from North Brewing
For more information, contact sarahhardy@northbrewing.com