Anticipation and celebration are in the air at Thornbridge brewery as 2015 approaches and the Brewery looks to celebrate 10 years of brewing and an expansion of its capacity and workforce.
“It’s been a fantastic 10 years for us” says Thornbridge’s Chief Operations Officer Simon Webster “from the beginning we had a simple approach which we encapsulated in our Innovation Passion Knowledge strap line and that has focused us on making the best beer we could and delighting customers wherever possible”.
The brewery started out in a 16hl brew house in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall but after winning a succession of awards for its beers demand grew rapidly and a new state of the art brewery was opened in September 2009 in Bakewell capable of producing 5 million pints a year. “The beer sector has changed dramatically in the past decade” reflects Webster “as the new wave of breweries has instilled life into what had become a moribund sector. Our success has been seen by many as a catalyst for many new breweries and we like to think we have inspired others to join the revolution on beer we are seeing in the UK”.
With the brewery exporting to 33 countries at almost 30% of its turnover Webster and Head Brewer Rob Lovatt say they think their success is down to employing great people, in all aspects of the business, but also in producing high quality beers of great consistency across a range of styles many that defy definition as those from a typical UK based brewery. Lovatt, who has worked at Thornbridge for 4 years, says that he and his brewing team are “given full licence by the senior management to brew styles of beer that excites the brewers and the tools to make these the best quality”. Over 350 awards from across the world are testament to the success of the approach.
Both Webster and Lovatt are looking forward to the completion early in 2015 of a £400k investment in plant at the brewery which will increase capacity by 40% adding some 2 million pints. “The expansion” says Webster will also us to continue on the path we have begun by satisfying more customers across the world that are demanding high quality beers and great choice”. We started with 2 employees and by the end of 2015 we will have 38. The brewery has a number of plans to help it celebrate 10 years in 2015 – “new beers of course” says Lovatt “and some old favourites but always with quality to the fore.
Picture:
Simon Webster (Right)
Rob Lovatt (Left)
Alex Buchanan
Marketing and Export Manager
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