Purity Brewing Co: Pure and simple

To look at the home page of Purity Brewery's website you'd think times were tough for the company. A wide-angled photograph shows a pretty grim-faced team of staff, including company founders Paul Halsey and Jim Minkin.

But the mean and moody look is tongue in cheek. Indeed, the Purity team is anything but miserable right now. Not least because the word on its range of beers - which include Mad Goose and UBU - is spreading well beyond the pubs of Stratford-Upon-Avon, where it first found favour among visitors and locals alike.

The brewer recently revealed an 82 per cent rise in annual turnover to £1.37m, exceeding its own sales target for the year by 24 per cent.

This impressive performance was thanks to the group doubling the number of pubs selling its range of beers in the last 12 months.

Growing freetrade accounts and listings with the likes of Enterprise Inns, Adnams and Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) have certainly helped this Warwickshire-based brewer - established four years ago by ex-Bass graduate Minkin and Halsey, also a former Bass graduate and an ex-sales director with the Highgate & Walsall Brewery - get its message across to a wider public.

But while the future of the Highgate brewery is currently clouded in uncertainty, these aren't worrying times for the 12-strong team at Purity.

The future's bright…

Possessed of a driven cask ale mindset and nurturing a determination to attract a whole new audience to the category, Halsey thinks the future looks pretty darn bright.

"In recent years we've watched the beer market turn its back on cask ale, but we believed we knew different," he says, adding that Purity wants to attract new drinkers to the category, but not at the expense of alienating traditional drinkers.

"Cask ale needs new and fresh products. And key to the long term are factors such as consistency and quality and getting the message of the brand across.

"We've got great relations with the pubs that sell our beers, we're innovative and we have a hands-on approach to what we do."

Purity beers' light and crisp attributes attract a younger crowd, Halsey says, as well as female drinkers. Innovation, at a time when cask's profile is relatively speaking going through the roof while other sectors of the beer market flounder, is high on Purity's agenda.

The brewer started from humble enough beginnings in October 2005, producing 20 barrels a week in its first year. But demand has increased to the extent that production is more than five times that today.

That's not to say it was easy at the beginning, says Halsey. "It was really tough in that first year," he admits. "We were new to this and had to earn our stripes."

But then the awards started to come, and recognition followed.

As well as dealings with established operators like M&B Purity likes to do deals with younger players, such as Bedford-based Peach Pub Company. "They have a fresh approach towards retailing and our image fits in with what they are trying to achieve," notes Halsey.

With a healthy cashflow Purity has a good relationship with its banks: "there are no issues there", Halsey says.

The only potential headache for Purity is how to cater for the growing demand for its beers. "Capacity is becoming a bit of an issue," says Halsey, "but we want to stay where we are." Geographically, perhaps, but as much as its founders have ambition to grow, big things surely beckon for Purity.