Thornbridge Brewery, the Derbyshire-based brewer and pub operator, plans to invest almost £0.5m increasing production capacity by a further 30% this year after reporting a 845% rise in exports in the past 12 months.
Simon Webster, chief operating officer, said: “The team at the brewery has been working very hard to ensure supply, not only for our UK customers, but also the overseas demand. We expanded production by about 30% in 2012 and are just finalising some further investment in brewing vessels to increase this again in late 2013.”
He said the company would not be brewing for 24-hours a day and added: “I can’t see us expanding production beyond this next increase so we will continue to build a worldwide reputation based on the quality of our beers not ubiquitous supply.”
Jim Harrison, Thornbridge managing director, said: “For a small brewery in the Peak District it’s great to see our beers being enjoyed across the world. We began exporting small quantities of bottled and keg beers about three years ago to a couple of countries but we now export to around twenty with the USA, Sweden and Italy being our major markets. Getting our head around the requirements of exporting was a bit of challenge at first but we have partnered with some great importers and this has been crucial to our success.”
