SIBA Business Awards 2018 to take place in Liverpool during BeerX
Last year’s Brewery Business of the Year Fourpure Brewing Co accept award from SIBA Chairman Buster Grant
Entry deadline: 31st January 2018
The SIBA Business Awards 2018 will take place during the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) flagship event ‘BeerX UK’, which will for the first time take place at the ‘Exhibition Centre Liverpool’ in March 2018.
The awards, which have a fast approaching entry deadline of the 31st January, seek to congratulate excellence in the brewing industry across a variety of categories, from pump clip, can and bottle design, to efforts taken by brewers to make their business more eco-friendly, innovative or successful. The prestigious awards also have categories for bars, restaurants, retailers and companies promoting independent craft beer in the UK.
“The SIBA Business Awards have gone from strength to strength in recent years with winners getting real value from being able to promote themselves as the best in the UK. As independent craft beer continues to grow in popularity we’ve also seen a huge surge in the number of retailers, bars and restaurants selling quality beer – making those awards more important than ever. The awards ceremony will take place at 6pm on Wednesday 15th March, the first day of the UK’s biggest beer and brewing event – BeerX UK 2018.” Mike Benner, SIBA Chief Executive.
The SIBA Business Awards are unique in being both free to enter and judged by a panel of independent industry experts. The craft beer retailing, promotion, restaurant and bar categories were introduced in 2016 to highlight the fantastic work being done to promote British independent craft beer, are open for entry by businesses across the UK.
This year SIBA are taking this one step further and partnering with Inapub for the UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Bar or Pub categories (‘City’ and ‘Rural’) in order to encourage a wider range of pubs to enter the awards in 2018.
SIBA Business Awards 2018: The Categories
- Marketing Implementation
- Green Business
- Business Innovation
- Commercial Achievement
- Best Individual Design
- Best Concept Design
- Supplier Associate of the year
- UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Retailer – Multiple
- UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Retailer – Single
- UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Bar or Pub – City (in Association with Inapub)
- UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Bar or Pub – Rural (in Association with Inapub)
- UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Restaurant
- Best Independent Craft Beer Promotion – On-trade
- Best Independent Craft Beer Promotion – Off-trade
To enter the SIBA Business Awards 2018 please visit www.siba.co.uk/business-awards/
Closing date for entries: 31st January 2018
2017 Winners Recap
In 2017 it was Fourpure who took home the coveted judges choice ‘Brewery Business of the Year’ award. This came after an impressive win in the Business Innovation award category for their innovative sensory training scheme, which put all their staff through rigorous beer training in order to drive quality throughout the business.
Other winners included Tiny Rebel brewery from Wales, who took home gold in the Commercial Achievement category for their meteoric growth over recent years and their bold export operations.
360 Degree Brewing won SIBA’s coveted Concept Design Award for their range of sleek, minimalist cans, and Beavertown Brewery took home the individual design category for the bottle design for their Tempus Project Applelation saison.
Swan Brewery won the Green Business award, which judges commented was for their efforts to “Not only make their brewhouse and business activities as economically friendly as possible, but to engage their local community in this activity through their ‘Green Saturday’ open days, was a perfect example of what can be achieved by a small brewery.
Judges felt that the practical, thoughtful methods employed by the Swan brewery showed that being Green is something within the reach of every brewery and not just those with large amounts of money to invest.”
Purity won the Marketing Implementation category for their innovative Social Media and marketing activities which maximised the sponsorship of Wasps Rugby Club. Crookham travel also won SIBA’s Supplier Associate of the Year.
SIBA introduced the industry section of their awards to congratulate the bars, restaurants and businesses going above and beyond in their promotion of independent craft beer in the UK.
Booma in Brixton won SIBA’s Best Independent Craft Beer Restaurant, with judges being ‘unanimous in their praise of Booma’s commitment to making the pairing of craft beer with indian food central to their menu in a simple yet engaging way. With easy to follow suggestions of which beers worked well with different dishes, backed up by an exciting range of independent craft-brewed beers, Booma was a clear winner in an extremely strong category.’
Other winners included Tapped Leeds in the city pub/bar category, the Salutation Inn in the rural pub/bar category, We Brought Beer in the Multiple Retailer category and the House of Trembling Madness in the single independent craft beer retailer category.
Beer Day Britain won the on-trade promotion category, with Sheffield Beer Week Highly Commended, and ‘There’s a Beer For That’ won in the Off-Trade Independent Craft Beer Promotion category.
Pictured: 2017 winners Fourpure Brewing Co with SIBA Chairman Buster Grant (centre)
