Cliquey IFBB shuns brewers

This is written more in sorrow than in anger. I know all the companies that make up the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB) and some of the owners of those breweries are personal friends. I welcomed the formation of the IFBB. It is vital for the health of the industry and cask beer production in particular that the family-owned sector survives and flourishes. Forty-four breweries closed in the final decade of the last century, many of them family-owned. There are just 33 family breweries left and they have seen their market share decline as the power of the global giants that dominate British brewing has grown. One certain way to survive is to encourage new family breweries and then let them join the IFBB where they can learn from the experience of long-standing companies. It seems, however, that the IFBB wants to remain an exclusive small group. It has ring-fenced its existing membership and made it impossible for new family breweries to join. It is clear beyond dispute that Cains Brewery in Liverpool qualifies for membership of the IFBB. It is not a tiny micro producing just a few barrels of beer a week, but a substantial commercial company. It is family owned by Sudarghara and Ajmail Dusanj, who saved Cains from closure, continue to supply excellent cask beers for the north-west market and have saved 155 jobs as a result. The Dusanj brothers have a proven track record as successful businessmen. They helped their father develop a chain of fish-and-chip restaurants and then moved into the drinks sector by buying Gardner-Shaw, a soft drinks distribution firm. In 2002, they bought Cains and have rapidly turned the failing brewery round. Better known as Higsons, Liverpool's major brewery was bought by Boddingtons, then acquired and closed by Whitbread. It reopened and was eventually bought by a large Danish brewing group. The Danes could not make the site profitable and planned to close it. The Dusanj brothers believed that Merseyside and the wider north-west could support a commercial brewery and they took the enormous risk of buying the site and investing considerable sums in it. In October 2002, the brothers applied to join the IFBB. They were keen to be members of a brotherhood of brewers with decades of experience and success. In particular, the Dusanj brothers were anxious to take advantage of the pooled buying and marketing initiatives that are exclusive to the IFBB and which culminate in the annual Cask Beer Week. The Dusanj brothers were told by Anthony Fuller, chairman of the IFBB, that Cains had to fulfil four criteria for membership: that Cains was family owned and based in Britain; the brewery owned public houses; that it brewed cask beer; and was also a member of the British Beer and Pub Association. Cains met all these requirements. More than a year later, Anthony Fuller told the brothers their application had been rejected as the IFBB had adopted a new rule that excludes family-owned breweries which have not been brewing for at least 10 years. The decision is, frankly, outrageous. An organisation cannot ­ legally, morally or ethically ­ change its rules to exclude a company which met the criteria for membership that existed when the application was first made. We can immediately dismiss any suggestion that the IFBB is motivated by racism, as the association has also turned down an application for membership from Woodforde's Brewery in Norfolk, citing the same 10-year rule. The IFBB is guilty of another, equally serious, charge: namely, that the existing members want to keep their association as a tightly-controlled, exclusive clique that profits from their collective purchasing and marketing advantages. The IFBB is also guilty of smug complacency. The members cannot see that their market is shrinking and the only way forward is to widen their membership and welcome new and successful family-owned breweries with proven track records of success, and modern ideas of producing and selling beer and running pubs. I appeal to all my friends in the IFBB immediately to abandon the iniquitous 10-year rule and to open their doors to Cains and Woodforde's without further humiliating delay. www.protzonbeer.com