There has been much discussion of SIBA going into National Brewers yards and sorting and returning all Small Brewers Casks. This concept fails to address the fundamental problem – that casks are being uplifted when they shouldn’t be. This causes the National Brewers grief because their yards become holding grounds for foreign casks, and resources, i.e. money, has to be diverted to work with them.
If we were to remove the problem for them then we would exacerbate the situation. There would be no incentive to educate their draymen because it would no longer be a problem, they would just offload the casks to SIBA. On a more and more regular basis. The Brewers that are currently co-operating with SIBA would of course be alienated. Why should they invest time and energy in sorting casks when SIBA is prepared to do it for them? You would also find that smaller and smaller companies would be demanding the same ‘service’ from SIBA. Why should any cask handler bother attempting to return casks in a responsible manner if all they have to do is ring SIBA to do the job for them?

It may surprise you to learn that cask repatriation problems are not the sole reserve of small brewers. Lucy has been doing a sterling job representing SIBA at the ‘Returnable Asset Management Panel’ meetings convened by the National Brewers and involving the major players in the industry. With businesses to run neither Paul nor myself would be able to attend enough of these meetings to provide a serious presence. Lucy can. She is making contacts and opening dialogue with the people that manage cask handling for the National companies.

Such is the National Brewers concern over cask loss that they had implemented a policy of uplifting all casks to a place of safety (their yards) until they could be sorted and returned to their owners. They had seriously underestimated the number of small brewers casks that this would involve, and were surprised to learn that to most SIBA members this policy made them the biggest villains of the piece and not heroes.

The level of communication being achieved between cask owning parties is at an all time high and it is in this atmosphere of negotiation and compromise that we hope to be able to garner some long term solutions to the problem.

So what are Cask Repat doing?

I am regularly approached by disgruntled brewers who want SIBA to make a representation to a National Brewer on their behalf because they believe casks have been ‘stolen’ from live accounts. We do not do this.
My advice is always twofold, firstly, talk to and educate the Licensees that you are dealing with as to the importance and value of our casks. They are in a position to prevent the casks being uplifted, get them on side and the problem can be solved.

Secondly the brewer should address their complaint, in writing, to the relevant company.
The reason SIBA doesn’t intervene more than this? Very often what appears to be black and white to a brewer turns out, at best, to be made up of shades of grey.

Recently a brewery stated that he had numerous casks in one of the Scotco Regional Distribution Centres awaiting repatriation though the SIBA Scheme. He wanted us to exert pressure to have them released. Two weeks later the RDC, without prompting, delivered the casks to the SIBA depot, there were two of the complainant’s cask among them, both of which he had delivered to Scotco directly.

Another brewery has an issue with Scotco for removing casks. Having complained to them it transpired that Scotco didn’t deal with any of the outlets they were being accused of uplifting casks from.

SIBA would not be taken seriously if we were seen to support every unsubstantiated complaint we receive. Had SIBA written to these companies accusing them of cask theft we would not be in a position to negotiate with them to assist them with the repatriation of empties.

A brewery had an issue with a Wetherspoons Pub. They thought that the Landlord was aware of his responsibility to look after the casks but Tradeteam uplifted them. The brewery wrote to Wetherspoons to complain and request compensation for the casks. Their response made it clear that he should make the commercial decision as to whether to pursue a claim against Wetherspoons or to continue trading with the company. He chose to continue the trading relationship.

SIBA can not make this sort of decision for a small brewer. He must choose who he deals with based on his knowledge of the customer.

Finding Solutions

You are already aware that Scotco are using the SIBA Scheme to return their foreign empties. When strange empties arrive at a Scotco yard they are automatically sent to the nearest Regional Distribution Centre. The RDC’s are primed to sort the micro casks into region and return them to the SIBA depots. For logistics reasons they only return casks when there is a full load. The guys who operate the system for Scotco are happy that they are able to manage the numbers arriving. The majority of the casks that are being returned to SIBA depots have recent dates on them suggesting that they are being returned reasonably quickly.

We have been in talks with SAMS Transport. They have moved site and although they are operating from a much smaller site there is room for some expansion. They still have the staff trained to sort casks and they still visit the National Brewers yards in the course of their other haulage contracts. Theoretically, and at a price, they could resurrect their collection, sorting and return scheme.
There are some that believe that this would be the panacea for all cask loss problems. For the reasons I stated earlier I don’t think that this would be the case. Remember that when the SAMs system was being used it was in the days of ATM before DDS. SIBA actively encouraged Scotco to collect all the micro casks from pubs.

A more attractive, and we believe viable alternative is to use SAMS logistics and cask handling skills to transport pre-sorted casks. We envisage them collecting pre-sorted pallets from yards and taking them to a holding site until there are enough for a delivery to one of our SIBA depots.

Carlsberg are prepared to return their foreign casks to central locations, sort them into regions and pay for the casks to be returned to a SIBA depot.

Trenstar already sort their foreign casks. A database of casks at their site at Leeds will be published on the SIBA website on a regular basis. Brewers that have casks there will be given the opportunity to collect them. Hogsback Brewery and Westerham Brewery have already organised regional collections for their areas. Any casks remaining will be sent to SIBA depots.

Similar negotiations are going on with Tradeteam.

Kegwatch has already been approved to use SIBA’s Depots to speed the return of casks. Kegwatch are to sort the casks, pay for the transport to SIBA depot and notify the brewers that they are there for collection. This facility has not yet been utilised.

We feel that Kegwatch has much to offer members, but suffers from an image problem – too often they are seen as the bad guys.

The membership needs to appreciate the differences between the cask recovery service offered by Kegwatch, the cask repatriation service offered by SIBA, and the cask retrieval service currently only offered by Marvo the Magician.

We have been discussing the possibility of employing a ‘SIBA Cask Champion’. This would be a person employed by SIBA to visit yards that have problems with repatriation of casks and offer training and assistance to the yard staff. The yard owner would still be responsible for casks being brought to their site and for returning them to their owners. We would merely provide assistance. We are discussing with Kegwatch the possibility of them introducing SIBA to appropriate sites, or even for the ‘Champion’ to be working alongside Kegwatch. We feel that such an alliance would prove to be beneficial for all concerned.
As well as educating yard staff the ‘Champion’ would be in an ideal position to spot trends as they occurred and report back to SIBA. Be it a particular site that was receiving too many foreign empties, or a particular brewery whose casks were turning up in volume.

Once trained in the mystical ways of SIBA Cask Repatriation he could relieve Lucy of her duties on the Returnable Assets Management Panel and be the point of contact for SIBA members with cask repatriation queries.

The National Brewers struggle to differentiate between casks that they have legitimately delivered to pubs under guest beer schemes, and those that have been delivered directly by a small brewer. They were particularly enthusiastic about the concept of a nationally recognised ‘Direct Delivered’ sticker on casks. For this to be effective there would need to be NO exceptions. The individual brewer would have to collect all casks bearing that sticker. This would mean that brewers would have to be prepared to collect casks from accounts in a timely manner regardless of whether the account was ordering beer! A SIBA Cask Champion could be a point of contact when National Dray Crews were pressured to take a Direct Delivered cask by a landlord. They could liase between the outlet and the brewery and ensure that the casks were uplifted responsibly.

For more information please e-mail the Cask Repatriation Subcommittee on caskrepat@siba.co.uk

GLOSSARY

Cask Repatriation – Assisting a third party with the return of casks that have identified as being ‘out of position’.

Cask Recovery – The retrieval of casks from an ‘at risk’ environment, storage and subsequent return of the casks to their owners.

Cask Retrieval – The utilisation of enchantments and potions to magically return a lost cask from an unknown location to the doorstep of an unrealistically demanding owner who will express no gratitude whatsoever for the service received.