Keeping it professional

The Siba Local Brewing Business Awards are now in their second year, and expanding their scope with new categories. Adrian Tierney-Jones reports

Society of Independent Brewers' (Siba) members are renowned for the quality of their beers, but in 2006 they were given the chance to add another string to their brewing bow with the inauguration of the Local Brewing Business Awards. This was a scheme with the aim of showing that Siba members could also demonstrate professionalism, innovation and commitment to customers alongside their brewing prowess.

At the time, Keith Bott, the then chairman (and now president) of the society, said that the awards were "our response to the controversial challenge from Union Pub Company boss Stephen Oliver at this year's Siba conference. If you look at what he said about beer quality and marketing there were some good points, even if they didn't go down well with members. Poor quality beer and poor marketing downgrades beer through the whole sector."

There were eight award categories plus an overall winner, with a judging panel of six, which included Morning Advertiser editor Andrew Pring. Now, as the awards enter their second year, two extra categories have been added: Best Point of Sale and Best

Sponsorship.

Beyond the brewing process

In 2006, the overall winner was Cumbrian brewery Hawkshead, set up by former BBC journalist Alex Brodie. Their state-of-the-art new-build beer hall and visitor centre (built in conjunction with a new brewery) certainly impressed the judges, who started off by awarding it Best New Launch. "My intention behind the hall," says Brodie, "was that it was an image thing. It was to say, look here is beer in nice glasses, think of it like a wine tasting, think of this with food.

"I wanted to get people in who don't normally drink beer. Most of the people who come through here are not routine beer drinkers, but they have been given the experience, shown the place, the brewery, the gleaming stainless steel and tasted different styles

of beer.

"The awards are a very positive development and I hope they continue to grow because this is Siba saying that there is more to beer than making it. You have to promote it and market it, and if the revival of British beer-making is going to be permanent you have to invest money. We have to do at our level what the big companies do, but with a smaller budget. We have to be clever and, above all else, we have to be professional."

All of last year's winners are in agreement that even though some of the award categories might not bump up sales with the same ferocity as winning a brewing award does, they are still well worth entering, and a sign of the seriousness with which Siba approaches business.

"It did nothing within the trade for us," admits David Grant of Moorhouse's, who won the Best PR initiative for their memorable 140th anniversary celebrations, "but then I didn't expect it to. It was purely a business award and it has helped in our dealings with the business community, such as banks. I think it's a great set of awards though, especially for some of the smaller Siba members.

"If people want to nominate themselves, it gives them an opportunity to focus inwards on what they have done in the past 12 months. That is important because they are so busy in the year. They should take time to think about their achievements and write them down. Even if you don't win it's well worth doing."

This is echoed by Westerham's Robert Wicks, whose Kentish brewery was highly commended for Best New Launch and won Best Off-Trade Retailer for its work with the upmarket Priory Farm shop. "We really enjoyed putting together our submission," he says, "it allowed us to take stock. It has also given us an opportunity to cement our relationship with the Priory."

Adding business value

Even though winning medals for his beers is commonplace, Peter Amor of Wye Valley (and current Siba chairman) still took great delight in the Best Packaging award. "We were very pleased with winning," he says, "it was one of those things that adds value to our image. Winning beer competitions is one thing, but Siba members are brewers and business people. This is about their business being looked at and professionally judged." Incidentally, sales of Wye Valley's beers have shot up by 25% in the last year, which suggests that they are doing something right.

Peter Haydon of Meantime, who won Best Use of Electronic Media, points to the benefit of the awards to members. "Winning didn't have people rushing out to buy our beers," he says, "but, on the other hand, it was nice to win and we thought that the whole concept of the awards was very good - it was nice to have recognition for what we were doing. Anything that increases the value of belonging to Siba for its members is a good thing."

Angus MacRuary of Isle of Skye, which won Best Innovation with its 4.5-gallon cask containers, can point to increased interest in the brewery's products. "We won the award for the conversion of old syrup tanks to take cask ale," he says, "and we were delighted when we won. It has helped to raise the profile of the brewery and it let us be seen as innovators. This is something we were very pleased with, as we have always prided ourselves on our customer service.

"We were contacted by licensees who we hadn't before thought of approaching, people who normally don't take cask ale. This time we could go to them and say that we had this dispensation system that was easy to change. We thought we had exhausted customers in the area but we have actually been picking up new accounts."

A learning experience

Everards quality assurance manager Mark Tetlow also pointed to a positive effect on trade. The Leicestershire family brewery (and relatively new Siba member) picked up two awards: Best Support for On-trade Retailer for their three-tier cellar training course and Best Promotion for the Cyclops beer classification system.

"Awards like these inspire you internally to move forward," he says. "The Cyclops system has gone from strength to strength and we have noted an increase in brewers from the smaller sector coming forward to have their beers checked over. Wholesalers also seem to be interested in using it as a standard for tasting notes. As a quality concept it has worked really well and has given us a certain amount of credibility.

"The training course has also done very well. We have had lots of publicity with journalists coming over to brew their own beer on the gold level of the course. It has also helped us to attract tenants. All these awards raise our profile as a craft-ale brewer. One of the things I was impressed with was the range of brewers. It all helps for us to learn from each other."