Yahoo News 'We are at huge risk as an industry': Craft brewers call for clarity and support for hospitality supply chain
Craft brewers have said their industry is at risk and sought clarity on whether breweries are eligible for grants unveiled in the Chancellor’s latest business support package.
Rishi Sunak yesterday unveiled a number of measures to help protect hospitality jobs and firms operating under Tier 2 restrictions, which prevent people from different households mixing indoors and have seen profits hit.
Bars, pubs, restaurants and retailers in Tier 2 areas will be eligible for grants of up to £2,100 a month. Independent craft breweries do not appear to "neatly fit into" the categories offered the grant, but they may be eligible for additional Government support via a top-up fund announced as part of the package.
All decisions on which businesses are given grants are to be made by local authorities.
The Society of Independent Brewers’ chief executive, James Calder, told the Standard: "We think that breweries should be automatically eligible for exactly the same support that hospitality is. All the way throughout, since lockdown in March, breweries have been left behind."
Gavin George is chief executive of Laine Brew Co., which operates breweries in East London's Victoria Park and Brighton.
He echoed the call for breweries to be provided with the same grants as venues, "given that hospitality businesses are often the mainstay of custom for breweries".
"We still have rents to pay, and also rates because we don't benefit from the hospitality rates holiday," he said.
Read more
Smaller breweries have seen numbers of beer orders fall owing to weaker trading in pubs due to restrictions, which has hit profits.
Over 90% of the sales at Dalston’s 40FT Brewery usually come from supplying London pubs, bars and restaurants. The rest come from its taproom, which has a small outdoor seating area.
40FT co-founder, Steve Ryan, said sales had been “crippled” since the Tier 2 rules came in this month.
He said his team "just want to know” if they are eligible for the new grant. “Because we have a taproom, we might fall into the hospitality element. It’s still unclear.”
Ryan, who is “just hoping we can make it to March”, added: “£2100 every month wouldn’t be enough anyway. It would be really helpful, but it wouldn’t cover our overheads.
“We will just have to keep on hustling, but it’s been months of hustling and there are only so many rabbits you can pull out of hats."
The business owner said many breweries are already closing, and t would be wrong to assume the "supply chain are just going to make it through" the Covid-19 crisis.
Black Sheep Brewery is one of the UK's larger independent brewers. Chief Executive, Charlene Lyons, said: “We desperately do need help and support, just like other industries, but no one appears to be taking our pleas seriously."
The British Beer and Pub Association welcomed the Chancellor’s package as a lifeline for jobs yesterday, but insisted that "further support was still needed for brewers and those in the supply chain that serve pubs".
This latest round of Government support is being distributed to local authorities who will "determine which businesses are eligible for grant funding in their local areas, and what precise funding to allocate to each business", the Treasury said in a statement.
A Treasury spokesperson highlighted its statement, which reads: "Local Authorities will also receive a 5% top up amount to these implied grant amounts to cover other businesses that might be affected by the local restrictions, but which do not neatly fit into these categories [ie: restaurants and pubs explicitly targeted by the grants].
"It will be up to Local Authorities to determine which businesses are eligible for grant funding in their local areas, and what precise funding to allocate to each business."
Read more
Comment: Hungry children must be our priority
Businesses urge ministers not to raise cost of London transport
London MPs urged to fight Congestion Charge extension and fare hikes
