Scottish brewer Innis & Gunn is eyeing a UK-wide rollout for its Beer Kitchen concept from 2017, MCA understands.
The company’s founder Dougal Sharp told MCA that the third and fourth opening for the concept would be in Scotland, where it is expanding under a joint venture with G1 Group.
The second Beer Kitchen, in G1’s former South Tay Superstore site in Dundee, opened this week and Sharp said the popularity of the marmalade IPA, brewed specifically for the launch, has been such that the group is now considering wider production.
He said sales of Innis & Gunn beer continued to strengthen across the UK and in Scotland its lager was now outselling Heineken.
Sharp said the Beer Kitchen model had evolved from the debut site in Edinburgh and now included a brewing room, with packages being sold for groups of up to 12 people.
He said: “We learnt a lot from Edinburgh – we were really dipping our toe in the water at that point and needed to understand who our customers were going to be and how they would use the Beer Kitchen.
“The partnership with G1 has been great because they have some fantastic locations and they have the back of house expertise. It means we can focus completely on the offer and customer service.”
Sharp said Beer Kitchen was geared up for expansion at a critical time in the rise of craft beer.
He said: “I think craft is on the verge of entering the mainstream. Every piece of research you see and the experience on the ground shows you that customers are becoming more discerning about what they eat and drink and that goes to the heart of craft beer – regardless of the actual label you give it.
“We have been very conscious with Beer Kitchen not to just make it for craft beer fans. We appreciate it can seem cliquey and that’s why we have a lot of non-craft products and an extensive wine list.”
On the rollout he said: “We are probably 75% there on the next two sites. They will be in Scotland. We have been conscious that we wanted to have the initial sites relatively close together and we’re conscious we’re still on a learning curve.
“Next year we are very positive about the prospects for expanding wider. We’re very open-minded about the type of locations and sites we’d look at.”
On brewing, he said: “We’ve had a fantastic start to the year. We have an absolute juggernaut of a brand in our lager, which is outselling Heineken in Scotland.
“We’re having great success in our international markets too, although Canada has been a bit trickier.”
