Finance

Gower Brewery toasts £1m investment

By Mark Wingett, M&C Allegra Foodservice

09-Aug-2015 - Last updated on 10-Aug-2015 at 07:52 GMT

The new investment will establish a new brewery

Related tags Brewing

Gower Brewery in Swansea is to quadruple its capacity and create up to 20 jobs with a new brewery and bottling line following investment of almost £1m, and plans to add a visitor centre and develop international markets.

Six-figure private investment from local owners Matt Joslin, Paul Chiverton, Chris Stevens, and Chris Mabbett has been supplemented by a loan from HSBC, a £300,000 package from Finance Wales and a grant from the Welsh Government.

This investment will establish a new 15,000 sq ft brewery at Crofty Industrial Estate in Penclawdd.

Its £250,000 state-of-the-art brewing kit, custom-made in Germany, has taken the Swansea brewer from five to 20-barrel capacity, creating six jobs. Up to 14 more will be created over the next two years as the bottling line comes on-stream in late 2015 and a visitor centre opens in January 2016.

'Natural beauty'

The brewery, which was started in November 2011, positions itself as producing ‘ales of outstanding natural beauty’, a reference to its home in the Gower Peninsula, the UK’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Until now the company based its micro-brewery at the partners’ Greyhound Inn in Llanrhidian, which has been managed alongside their other two pubs; The Kings Head Inn in Llangennith, and The Ship Inn in Port Eynon.

It said that the planned £240,000 bottling line will allow the product portfolio of the brewery to grow, and its increased capacity also opens up international markets.

Joslin, director and co-owner at the Gower Brewery, said: “We plan to introduce a wider range of limited edition, seasonal beers, and are already talking to distributors about opening up markets in China and Scandinavia in 2016.

Impressive

“Consumer interest in the art of brewing has never been stronger, plus we have invested in some seriously impressive kit, so opening up our state-of-the-art brewery and adding a visitor centre was always the plan.

“As a business, we are constantly surrounded by our customers - both regulars and tourists - in our pubs, and so it was a natural step to welcome them to the new brewery.

“Our focus in 2016 will also be to increase listings and distribution in England, starting with the M4 corridor, but that is just the beginning.”