Adam Henson and Guy Newell, MD Butcombe Brewery

Butcombe, the West Country’s fastest growing Brewery, is bucking the trend and has broken its own record for beer sales this year. In May 2012 own production was up 18%, own cider up 20% and total sales up 22%, compared to the same period last year, producing three thousand and seventy barrels of beer during the month of May 2012. Butcombe Bitter in bottle is the fastest growing major bottled ale brand in the UK in a market growing by 7%*. The twenty-strong managed pub estate (now twenty-one) is up 3.3% sales compared to a strong March, April and May during 2011 despite last year’s better weather and Royal Wedding.

Butcombe’s new beer – Adam Henson’s Rare Breed – launched last year in partnership with Cotswold farmer and TV presenter, Adam Henson, is now firmly established as the Brewery’s third permanent beer alongside Butcombe Bitter and Butcombe Gold. The Brewery is adapting Butcombe Gold as ‘Going For Gold’ in honour of the Olympics, which is lighter in colour than regular Gold and made with a sprinkling of American Hops. ‘Going For Gold’ is now available throughout the West Country and via Fuller’s in London and nationally through Punch Finest Cask.

Investment in the Brewery has continued during 2012 with over £250,000 spent on new equipment in production and adding 4,000 extra square feet of warehousing plus increasing yard space and parking.***

Butcombe’s Managing Director, Guy Newell, comments: “It has been extremely rewarding to see such a strong performance in all areas of the business over the past twelve months, particularly when consumers are tightening their belts. We have a tight knit team who all work incredibly hard – we always try to innovate, to improve, to do things differently – and this ethos is paying off”.

Butcombe has supported the growth of its off-trade business via several new initiatives during the past year including: the launch of a dedicated bottled beer website www.butcombebottles.com; producing a monthly ‘Premium Bottled Ale Report’ that is e-mailed to key buyers and off-trade decision makers in the industry; setting up a LinkedIn UK Bottled Ale Group and launching a Butcombe Recommended Retailer Scheme.

The Brewery will also be launching a forty page illustrated “Butcombe Cook Book” which will be available from October 2012 giving consumers food and beer matching recommendations and recipe ideas. It will be sold in Butcombe’s Brewery store and Pub Estate as well as used promotionally alongside Butcombe’s beers over the key Christmas selling period.

Butcombe’s award-winning hand-crafted ales can be enjoyed in approximately 1,000 outlets within a 75 mile radius of Bristol. Due to increasing consumer demand, Butcombe has also recently extended its draught beer trading area and sales force to cover the northern delivery area to Herefordshire and Worcestershire and from Gloucester to Ross on Wye, to Chipping Norton and to Burford. Butcombe’s bottled beer range can be found in over five hundred and forty supermarkets across the UK, as well as a large number of independent convenience stores and off licences.

For further information visit www.butcombe.com or follow Butcombe Brewery on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Butcombe-Brewery Twitter: ButcombeBrewery Linkedin: UK Bottled Ale Group