A new UK brewery tracker has been launched today by SIBA, the Society of Independent Brewers, setting out the definitive number of actively trading breweries in 10 areas of the UK.
The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker shows the National total number of active brewers as 1828 as of the first January 2023. This comes after a tough 2022 for the industry, where brewery closures are estimated to have almost doubled those of new openings*.
The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker will be released on a quarterly basis throughout 2023 and beyond, giving an accurate and up to date brewery number for the UK, something which has often been difficult to track in the past in a consistent way.
“It has been an incredibly tough few years for the independent brewing industry and as we look ahead to the future it is important to be able to track our market-share against the dominant global brewers. The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker plays an important role in this and will give the industry an accurate and timely figure on active breweries, with a clear regional breakdown of numbers.” Andy Slee, SIBA Chief Executive.
One of the issues which has made tracking accurate brewery figures in the UK tricky in the past was clearly defining what constitutes a brewery, something SIBA have tackled head on with a clear criteria and figures which represent active breweries rather than just registered beer businesses.
The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker defines a brewery simply as ‘An active business that makes beer and that has its own brewing equipment’ with further criteria defined for breweries with multiple sites, or which are now owned by a Global brewer.
“The figures released today are a snapshot of the UK brewing industry as it stands at the start of 2023, but which I believe will form the basis of an incredibly useful resource for tracking the increase and decrease in breweries across the UK in the coming year – an important barometer for industry health. With figures released every quarter we can track numbers nationally and regionally and will be releasing the data freely to all, giving everybody access to up to date and robust data on brewery numbers – something which has been sadly lacking in the past with multiple sources for often wildly conflicting numbers.” Andy Slee, SIBA Chief Executive added.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the UK’s leading consumer organisation for beer drinkers, have welcomed the launch of the SIBA UK Brewery Tracker;
“CAMRA welcomes and supports any accurate information which gives a better picture of the state of Britain’s brewing industry. It’s essential we’re able to assess the true impact of the last few difficult years, and regularly updated information about the country’s independent brewing sector, and diversity of beer choice for consumers, will be immensely helpful.” Tom Stainer, CAMRA Chief Executive.
Looking at the figures across the UK it’s clear that the most densely populated areas see the highest number of active breweries, with 335 breweries operating in the South East alone.
SIBA UK Brewery Tracker 2023
Correct as of 01.01.2023
Scotland: 146
Northern Ireland: 29
North East: 265
North West: 209
East: 178
Midlands: 282
West of England: 75
Wales: 102
South East: 335
South West: 207
UK Total: 1828
The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker will be live as of Friday 13th January 2023 via www.siba.co.uk/
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Notes to Editors
*Brewery closures in 2022 are estimated to be over 80 compared to 46 new brewery openings.
Supporting images and graphics: click here
SIBA UK Brewery Tracker Brewery Criteria
· Must be an active business that makes beer and has its own brewing equipment.
· A brewing business that is producing beer at multiple sites counts individually towards regional and national totals.
· A brewery that is producing beer, even whilst being fully or partially owned by another brewery, is counted individually towards regional and national totals.
How data is compiled
The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker is compiled internally by full-time professional staff employed by the Society of Independent Brewers and is cross-referenced by SIBA Regional Directors in each of the eight SIBA Regions across the UK. The organisation considers a number of factors and data-sources alongside its own data analysis and extensive research, including, but not limited to, HMRC registrations and CAMRA Good Beer Guide listings.
About SIBA
The Society of Independent Brewers is a not for profit trade association which primarily represents independent craft breweries and supplier businesses in the UK. They recently expanded their membership remit to include international breweries, UK beer retailers and amateur homebrewers.
As well as the newly launched SIBA UK Brewery Tracker the organisation also produce the SIBA Craft Beer Report – a comprehensive analysis of the UK craft beer market which take into account consumer polling, industry data and an in-depth analysis of independent breweries using data from their annual members survey.
Press release from SIBA.
For all inquiries, please contact us at: neil.walker@siba.co.uk.