Brakspear considers brewing exit
Brakspear, the historic brewer, is thought to be close to calling time on its 200-year-old beer-making operations.
The move comes in the wake of last year's financial figures that showed growing beer volumes and shrinking profit margins.
The Henley-based company is reviewing its entire business, which also includes 100 pubs.
Company spokesman Graham Stewart-Reed said: "Nothing has been decided yet and we are reviewing all our operations in the long-term.
"Major brewers are squeezing us out on price, major pub companies insist on buying at huge discounts and now Gordon Brown is in on the act.
"As a result of the Budget we are now being squeezed from the bottom as well as the top."
Brakspear currently produces about 90,000 barrels a year. Mr Stewart-Reed said the company had hoped to see a sliding scale, seen in the rest of Europe, which runs all the way up to 120,000 barrells.
He added: "We can compete on quality - we have rafts of awards - but it boils down to price. There are many positives about our brewing operations but these factors are not enough to keep us going [in brewing] long-term."
Sales of Brakspear's ales are currently rising, up four per cent in cask, and five in bottle last year, but the margins are failing to reflect the increases.
The higher sales come from the free trade, where over capacity and pressure from big pub companies push down the margins of small independent brewers like Brakspear.
In the company's own tied houses, sales of its beers, which hold higher margins, have declined in favour of national, heavily-advertised brands.
It is thought the company is contemplating a future life as a pub operator.
The company could generate significant capital through the sale of its brewing operations. It is though a string of companies would be interested in the brands, and the sale of the brewery would raise further cash.
A property expert, who declined to be named, said that brewery site at Henley-on-Thames had been valued at £10m two years ago.
Managing director Jim Burrows recently told the local newspaper: "We cannot carry on subsidising one part of the business on the back of another. We have over 400 shareholders who look to us to act in their interest."
