The Cornish brewery that makes Doom Bar ale is to be closed by its US owner, throwing the favored beer model’s future into doubt and placing about 200 jobs in danger.
The drinks firm Molson Coors stated it plans to shut Sharp’s Brewery in Rock, together with its nationwide name centre in Wales, saying it was “no longer financially sustainable”.
The Chicago-based firm, which purchased Sharp’s 15 years in the past, stated it was planning to shut the positioning by the tip of this yr nevertheless it “remains committed” to Sharp’s beer manufacturers.
Sharp was based in 1994, and most its gross sales come from Doom Bar, which is among the many bestselling cask ales in the UK, and was named after a notoriously harmful sandbank in Cornwall’s Camel estuary. Sharp’s additionally makes Atlantic and Twin Coast pale ales.
Tom Stainer, chief govt of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) stated it was “just another example of a global brewing giant destroying the nation’s cask brewing heritage. Sharp’s has been brewing cask for over 30 years and this will just be dismantled overnight.”
Molson Coors stated it was exploring potential offers with different producers to maintain making the beer, together with brewing in different elements of the nation. But Stainer added that any plans to produce the Cornish beers outdoors the area “would be a disgrace”.
“We are losing far too many cask brands and the breweries who craft them at the hands of global brewers more interested in profit than our brewing heritage, and making sure drinkers can enjoy authentic products,” he stated.
When Molson Coors purchased the Cornwall web site for £20m in 2011, it stated it was “100% committed to real ale and cask beer at Rock” and even advised the brewery might be expanded.
But on Thursday, the US agency, which additionally makes Carling, Coors Light and Staropramen, stated it had explored “every alternative option to make the site financially sustainable”.
The plan was a part of a broader restructuring to “unlock efficiencies and cost-savings to fuel the company’s long-term growth”, it added.
Ben Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, stated the closure was “a hammer blow for the local economy, and for the hospitality sector here in Cornwall that is already on its last legs”.
He stated: “It is deeply disappointing to see an American multinational move production out of Cornwall, and ministers should look at giving Cornish beers, ales, and other drinks the same protections as the Cornish pasty, so that what is branded Cornish is genuinely made here.”
Simon Kerry, managing director of Molson Coors in the UK and Ireland, stated the closure “has not been an easy decision for us to make … However, the site is no longer financially sustainable as part of our national production network.”
About 50 folks face redundancy on the Rock brewery, in addition to the 150 who work at its name centre in Wales. Molson Coors stated it was closing that web site as a result of practically 90% of its buyer orders have been now made on-line.
Molson Coors had “evolved our business as part of our digitisation journey,” Kerry stated, including: “The proposed closure of our National Contact Centre is no reflection on the brilliant work of our teams, but is in response to these changes.”
