A Salford brewery claims the government’s tax freeze will not make a big difference to the day-to-day struggles facing their industry.
Marble Beers, a brewery based on Boston Court Industrial Estate, has been rocked by the recent rise in water and power bills as they distribute 1.2m pints of beer a year across Salford, the UK and abroad – with Italy being one of their biggest export markets.
Marble’s director of production Joseph Ince welcomed chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s alcohol freeze during Wednesday’s Autumn statement but ultimately thinks it will prove to be a futile gesture.
He said: “There was no other option, given that they’d handled duty so badly.
“The freeze is welcome, but politicians love to talk about British pubs – it’s a massive photo op, when the support has been so minimal.”
Brewing beer is an energy-heavy process, with over 2000 litres of water being used in every batch.
The duty freeze is designed to help in some respect, but breweries are still combatting the increase in utilities, driving up the cost of your average pint.
Joseph added: “You can make a technically perfect beer in the perfect facility, but you can’t always do that twice. The cost of gas and electricity is making it even harder for businesses whilst we try to be as efficient as possible, we must use a lot of power,”
Marble Beers luckily had a “product portfolio” that meant they weren’t drastically affected by the summer tax increases, with a range of lower percent beers. Despite this, they did reduce the strength of some beers by 0.5 per cent which regained the equivalent of one worker’s salary.
Joseph said: “That’s not the difference between hiring a new team member or staying with the staff we have, lowering the percentage meant we didn’t need to cut anyone this year.”
It is not all doom and gloom however.
Marble Beers employs roughly 15 people with around six involved in the brewing process and this flagship brewery was one of the first railway arch breweries in the country, expanding to their current site in 2019.
As Salford bustles with breweries and distilleries now, Joseph told SalfordNow how welcome newcomers are to the scene, creating a community not a competition.
He added: “It’s a rising tide, just as long as the Heineken plant in Moss Side isn’t upping roots and moving here the current government are doing enough to hinder breweries; we don’t want to put ourselves against each other too.”
Marble Beers distribute world wide, but if you want to taste what great beer from Salford tastes of they have a site at The Marble Arch, and on their website.
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