DEVON’S Otter Brewery is vying for a prestigious industry accolade with such businesses as Coca-Cola, the Co-Operative Group and Unilever.

The company, based at Luppitt, near Honiton, is one of ten shortlisted in the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability category of the National Business Awards.

The finalists will each make a presentation to the judges next month and the winner will be announced at an award ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in November.

It follows the opening of Otter’s pioneering eco-cellar last year.

It is the first building of its kind in the South West, and much of it is underground, naturally keeping the temperature inside at the perfect 12C for storing barrels of beer during secondary fermentation and eliminating the need for chilling in the summer and heating during winter.

This has helped the brewery to save around £20,000 a year in energy costs and to cut its annual carbon emissions by 6.5tonnes.

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