Nottinghamshire’s largest independent brewery, Springhead, is celebrating an 800% growth in demand for its reciprocal trading business from December 2009 to February 2010 as a result of an intensified firkin swapping campaign.

Like many small breweries Springhead has long been involved in a barrel exchange system with other like-minded breweries. This co-operative effect enables them to forge long-lasting relationships with both free houses and pub groups and introduces the breweries to a wider geographical audience. In the last six months Springhead has increased the number of breweries it trades with tenfold and is now guaranteed £100, 000 in gross sales for the coming year.

The end of 2009 and the start of 2010 has been witness to some of the largest developments to Springhead’s marketing activity, including a complete re-brand and the appointment of and North-East agent and two new sales managers, one of whom is National Accounts Manager, Phil Owen who has been the driving force behind the successes of the beer swap.

The initiative sees Springhead swapping a mix of its five core beers, including its most popular beer, Roaring Meg, and a specially selected monthly brew from its larger selection of 12 further beers with other similar microbreweries belonging to SIBA, The Society of Independent Brewers. Each microbrewery then has a range of different beers from all around the country with which to trade, selling them on to their regular suppliers, pubs and pub groups. Each beer from the Springhead portfolio is created from an entirely separate recipe to focus on different strengths, colours and flavours to account for different tastes across the UK. Springhead plans to trade with 40 other breweries in 2010 stretching from Newcastle to Cornwall.

As well as the obvious benefits it brings, such as increasing the presence of Springhead’s beers, and those of the other participating breweries’, in real ale pubs around the country, this co-operative effect leads to efficiencies in haulage, reduced costs for both parties and casks are returned quicker than average. In addition, Springhead is able to support the pub groups by supplying its newly rebranded point of sale materials as well as, for instance, regular “meet the brewery” nights held in their pubs.

Springhead’s Managing Director, Helen Teasdale has said: “The beginning of 2010 has been quite tough for the pub trade, with the poor weather affecting sales, so I am delighted that things seem to be looking up. The team at Springhead has really got behind the beer swapping and I hope that the new drinkers who are being introduced to the brand up and down the country enjoy it as much as our regulars.”

Springhead bottled beers are available in Morrison’s nationally and regionally in Waitrose, The Co-op, Asda, Majestic, and Tesco’s supermarkets.

For further stockist details please call 01636 821 000. Springhead Brewery encourages you to enjoy its products in moderation.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

David & Keith Bott

Stoke-on-Trent based Titanic Brewery has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award in recognition of its growing fleet of community pubs.

The brewery has invested heavily in reviving “the local” by buying and refurbishing dilapidated pubs across North Staffordshire.

Now its determination to buck the trend of pub closures has led to a position on the four-strong shortlist for the Publican newspaper’s Multiple Operator of the Year award.

The winner will be announced at a gala evening at London’s famous Grosvenor Hotel on April 21.

The prestigious nomination comes as the brewery, based at Lingard Street, Burslem, celebrates its 25th anniversary.

During that time Titanic has grown from small beginnings to produce around two million pints of fine ale a year with the brewery’s beer sold in pubs and supermarkets across the UK.

However, the award nomination is for its work in its home area of North Staffordshire where Titanic has established a popular chain of four pubs.

“In the early years we probably sold more beer in Newcastle-on-Tyne than Stoke-on-Trent, but we recognised that there would be benefits in selling our product ourselves through local outlets,” explained Managing Director Keith Bott.

“The pub estate provides our shop ‘port-hole’ in the local area and allows beer drinkers to connect directly with the brewery and to feel part of a growing local company. The involvement of customers and the ability to interact and feel part of the Titanic family is exceptionally important to us.”

Titanic bought its first pub, the Bulls Head, Burslem, in 1992, but only began to expand its fleet in 2007 when the brewery forged an innovative partnership with a larger company Everard’s.

The joint venture, combining Titanic’s local knowledge and consumer loyalty with Everards pub purchasing and operating skills has resulted in three new pubs – the Greyhound, Newcastle-under-Lyme,the White Star, Stoke, and the Royal Exchange, Stone.

Titanic Brewery now employs more than 100 people in North Staffordshire and has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in its four pubs.

Keith added: “Despite the current trend of closures and the global recession we believe there is still a place for traditional style community pubs.

“Titanic’s success comes through giving people what they want – a traditional local pub where people can enjoy good quality products in comfortable surroundings.

“Our pubs are firmly part of the communities they serve. There are no flashy gimmicks or large screen televisions.”

Titanic Pubs are renowned for their community work, each pub raises funds for local and national charities, the Greyhound hosts a popular carol service complete with brass band and the White Star provides a much needed venue for local musicians and poets.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

Purity Brewing Co. has thrown its support behind the 4th Flatpack Festival by signing up to be the official drinks sponsor.

The Flatpack Festival, a celebration of eclectic films, animation and music, runs from 23rd – 28th March at various venues around Birmingham, including Ikon Eastside and The Electric Cinema.

Purity will supply its award-winning Pure UBU and Veltins Pilsner for all hospitality events, which will be attended by artists, filmmakers and the media, including stocking the green room for the flagship event, Fast Forward with Synth Eastwood, which features 20 musicians and artists from France, Berlin, Ireland and the UK.

Purity will also supply the beer in the festival bars at the Vivid and Ikon Eastside venues.

Paul Halsey, Purity’s Managing Director, said: “As a brand Purity has a very broad appeal. Our beers are equally at home in the traditional pub, as well as at cultural events, which is why I am so delighted to support the Flatpack Festival.

“Birmingham has a vibrant arts and culture scene and I’m keen to make Purity a part of it.”

Pip Mcknight, from the Flatpack Festival, added: “The Flatpack Festival aims to provide our audiences with the best in every way, from amazing films, right down to the beer we serve, so we are very excited to be working with Purity. Our two brands make a lot of sense as a package and, after sampling Purity’s award-winning ales, I’m sure they will be popular with festival-goers.”

Among the highlights of this year’s festival are a live score to FW Murnau’s classic silent film, Sunrise, at St Martin’s in the Bull Ring, a Plasticine Party celebrating the work of Frank Zappa’s animator Bruce Bickford, and the UK premier of restored Australian cult classic, Dogs in Space UK, which stars Michael Hutchence, the former lead singer of INXS.

Visit www.flatpackfestival.org.uk for further information about the Flatpack Festival.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

L-R Canalhouse manager, Yvette Storey with Nottingham Evening Post writer, Delia Monk, and two tasters from the Vale of Belvoir, Sandra O’Leary and Janet Newton

The Canalhouse bar has hosted its first ever women only beer tasting event. Organised as part of SIBA’s beer fest weekend, women of all ages, experience, and past taste nightmares were introduced to beer as it should be.

Among those taking part were Sandra O’Leary and Janet Newton from the Vale of Belvoir and Nottingham Evening Post journalist, Delia Monk.

Sandra says she and Janet met at a beer festival and though she is ‘beer mad’, Janet is still a bit of a novice. “So we decided to give this a try and what a great success it’s been,” she says. “Our usual favourites are Harvest Pale and Elsie Mo. Here we’ve really taken to the strong Scottish bitter, Wildcat.”

For the Evening Post’s Delia Monk, the experience was life changing. She says she loves the atmosphere of a beer festival, but would much rather order a lager or a wine. Under Castle Rock’s Charlotte Blomeley’s guidance, her opinions altered radically.

“I went from total ignorance to opinionated enthusiasm in less then 30 minutes,” she says. “We all threw ourselves into it, discovering tastes and flavours I never knew existed in barrels.”

The event, hosted by pub landlady Yvette Storey and led by Castle Rock’s head of beer tasting, Charlotte Blomeley, had the simple aim of introducing female drinkers to the wonders in taste, texture and appearance of British brewed traditional real ale. Charlotte says too many of her women friends fight shy of trying new tastes. “Most are quite content to carry on with a half of their favourite continental lager, glass of wine or fizzy alcopops.

“What they’re missing, and what we showed off, was the majestic tastes of today’s British ales. These are often locally made by brewers who seem much more able to reflect what customers want. The big multi national brewers’ stranglehold on beer has gone and so, instead of only tasting their limited ingredients, these newer ales offer styles and flavours every bit as complex and worthy of discussion as good wines and spirits,” says Charlotte.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

Purity Brewing Co. is proud to announce it will be an official sponsor of the first ever Mostly Jazz Festival, due to take place this summer in Birmingham’s Moseley Park (3rd – 4th July).

Purity, based near Alcester, Warwickshire, will be serving both cask and bottles of its three award-winning beers, Mad Goose, Pure Ubu and Pure Gold, plus Veltins Pilsner and Bernard Lager from its eclectic imported range, ensuring that festival goers don’t get thirsty while they enjoy the musical delights of contemporary jazz, funk and soul.

Premiering this year, the Mostly Jazz Festival is the UK’s only, one site, open air music festival dedicated entirely to jazz music. Set in picturesque surroundings, the festival will feature an eclectic mix of up and coming talent performing alongside headline acts, Sun Ra Arkestra, Courtney Pine, and Quantic and his Combo Barbaro.

Paul Halsey, Purity’s Managing Director, comments: “I’m really looking forward to being part of the first ever Mostly Jazz Festival. The Purity brand has been created to be fresh, funky and innovative, just like the music and artists who will perform at the event.

“Great music and premium beers are a first class combination. Lets just hope the sun shines on us in July.”

Charlotte Payne, the festival’s Press Officer, added: “Mostly Jazz is about showcasing the diversity of contemporary jazz in all its forms, from avant-garde, free and modern jazz through to vocal, song-based jazz, jazz-fusion and future jazz. It’s also about considering jazz’s influence and relationship to other black music art-forms such as Latin music, funk and soul.

“Mostly Jazz will be a relaxed and fun event, so it’s great to have Purity on board as it’s a brand that will fit in very well with the festival’s atmosphere.”

Visit http://www.mostlyjazz.co.uk/home to find out more information about the festival.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

David & Keith Bott

A celebration ale will be launched on Friday as the director’s of award winning Titanic Brewery have an appointment with royalty.

The Potteries brewery was commissioned by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to brew a new beer to celebrate the city’s centenary.

Titanic Directors’ Keith and Dave Bott will hand a special presentation pack of Potteries Centenary Ale to the Prince of Wales during a civic reception on Friday (19 February).

The brothers will meet Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall as they visit Stoke-on-Trent to celebrate the federation of the six towns which came together to become Stoke-on-Trent.

“We are thrilled to be chosen to help to celebrate the centenary of our brewery’s home city,” said Keith.

“Titanic Brewery is proud to be a part of Stoke-on-Trent and our bottled range carries the words Shipped from the Potteries.”

“Interestingly, Prince Charles is a great supporter of the role community style pubs play in society so we have a common cause.”

Titanic Brewery has gained recognition for promoting “the local” pub. At at a time when pubs across the UK are closing at a rapid rate, Titanic has opened three new community focused pubs.

Cllr Ross Irving, leader of Stoke on Trent City Council said: “In this centenary year of the Federation of The Six Towns one of the ways that we wanted to celebrate it was to have a commemorative ale. We are delighted that we were able to work with the Titanic Brewery to produce the Potteries Centenary Ale. I look forward to sampling it myself.”

Centenary Ale is a 4.8% full bodied deep golden beer with citrus notes and a clean hoppy finish. It is available in bottles and on draught and the brewery will donate 10 pence from every pint or bottle sold to the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent’s charity fund.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

Two of Purity’s award-winning beers are now available at Birmingham’s popular Urban Coffee Co, which recently received a license to sell alcohol.

From today (Wednesday 17^th February), customers of the independent coffee shop, located in Church Street, in the city’s Colmore Business District, will be able to enjoy bottles of Mad Goose and Pure Ubu along with their cappuccinos and mochas.

Paul Halsey, Managing Director of Purity Brewing Co, said: “Purity and Urban Coffee are a fantastic match. We’re both independent companies looking to take on the big boys in our respective industries. We also share a common passion to provide the public with premium quality products, as well as a service that offers distinction, approachability and integrity.

“Both Purity’s beers and  Urban Coffee are innovative, fresh and funky brands, which appeal a wide group of people. I’m confident that Mad Goose and Pure Ubu will be equally at home in Urban Coffee as they are in the traditional pub.”

Hannah Wolsey, General Manager, Urban Coffee, said: “Urban Coffee was set up to stand out against the high street coffee chains, which have become the fast food equivalent of the coffee world. We pride ourselves on customer service and quality products, which is why we’re delighted to be able to supply them with Mad Goose and Pure Ubu alongside our premium coffee and food.”

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

Nottinghamshire based micro brewery, Springhead is delighted to announce the appointment of two new Regional Sales Managers for the north of England, Bob Baume and Chris Robinson.

Bob and Chris have been appointed by Springhead, who has tasked them with increasing distribution of Springhead beer to pub companies and free houses as well as brand awareness in the north of England. Their brief is to drive new target markets, particularly women and occasional or curious, younger cask beer drinkers to Springhead’s range of 17 cask and bottled beers. Springhead hopes that Chris and Bob will benefit from the recent rebranding, as they will be able to offer the pubs a range of innovative pump clips and high quality point of sale to boost interest and sales.

Bob’s particular area of responsibility is for Yorkshire and northern Derbyshire and he brings with him a wealth of knowledge drawn from a number of years in the cask ale industry. Bob started out at Websters, moving to Black Sheep where he helped to build up the brand. Most recently Bob was with Copper Dragon Brewery in Skipton. Bob will be concentrating on the free trade accounts in particular and as many of the pubs in the area are unfamiliar with the Springhead brand, it is an exciting opportunity for both Bob and the pub landlords to enjoy a new range of excellent beers.

Bob has said: “I am delighted to have such a wide range of fantastic products to offer the pubs and I am confident that Springhead’s focus on new and curious drinkers will attract publicans to offer Springhead beers in a bid to increase footfall into the pubs.”

Chris Robinson

Chris joins Springhead under the guise of North East Cask Wholesale & The Occasional Wine Company and will be working in partnership with Springhead Brewery to promote and drive the sales of their brands through the wholesale sector, pub companies and direct to free trade outlets in the North East of England.

After a fourteen year career in the wholesale sector working for Matthew Clark, The Beer Seller Ltd and latterly as Regional Manager for WaverleyTBS.

Chris has said: “It is a great opportunity to work in partnership with Springhead in a growing market, promoting quality cask with excellent brand support.”

Springhead Brewery, which is based near Newark, Nottinghamshire, was launched in 1990 as the smallest micro brewery in the UK. Today it is the largest brewery in Nottinghamshire and operates as a 50 barrel plant with a portfolio of 17 ales, including Roaring Meg, its only bottled beer.

For further information or sales enquiries please call Springhead Brewery on 01636 821 000

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

After just having put their financial year to bed, Loddon Brewery in Oxfordshire are celebrating their sixth record year in a row. Since establishing the brewery in 2002, turnover and volume have increased above budget year on year, and 2009 was certainly no exception. Turnover increased by 24% and volume by 23%; December saw over 100,000 pints of ale leave the brewery!

The last 12 months have seen extensive building work take place. Renovations of old barns created new office space, extra malt and hop storage, bottled beer storage and extended the existing cask store. This will allow the company to continue to grow over the next decade.

Directors Chris and Vanessa Hearn said, “We are delighted with the company’s results, which exceeded both our budget and objectives. We will, of course, continue to push the brewery forward and are currently working on a number of exciting initiatives for 2010.

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!