Sudarghara Dusanj Cains
The Robert Cain brewery is back with the name it had in the 19th-century, but the magnificent Victorian building in Liverpool is on its seventh set of owners. The original Cains merged with its Warrington rival Walker's, before being subsequently occupied by another Liverpool brewer, Higsons. That firm was taken over by Boddington's and when Boddies was acquired by Whitbread the brewery closed. It subsequently reopened as an independent concern under the old Robert Cain name and went through a period of being owned by a Danish brewer before being bought by Sudarghara Dusanj, pictured left, and his brother, Ajmail, in 2002.
Talking to Sudarghara, Cains' joint managing director alongside his brother, it is clear he has as much, or more, awareness of what needs to be done in the cask-ale market as someone whose family had been in the beer business for generations. Already Cains has a reputation for innovation, with beers such as its Raisin Ale and, even more adventurously its cask lager, soon to be the subject of the first wraparound advertisement Camra's What's Brewing newspaper has ever carried, in time for the Great British Beer Festival next week (the same wraparound will also appear on the MA, as part of Cain's first major advertising campaign for the beer).
Cask-ale brewers won't grow by brewing the same old beers and selling them to the same people. 'But if you can add value through quality and innovation, then you can grow, Sudarghara says. Innovation for Cains includes not just cask lager and beer with raisins, but wheat beers and other kinds of beer styles. Seasonal beers are a good way of dipping a toe into the market, Sudarghara says: 'It's a cheap way of testing a product, if it works you know you're on to a winner.
He adds: 'The cask market is growing for us, and he predicts growth every year for the next three years at least. One advantage of brewing in a big old brewery is that Cains has plenty of headroom: it is currently operating at just two-thirds capacity. Sudarghara would like to lift the brewery's tied estate, currently 11 pubs, up to around 100 outlets but 'the prices at the moment, are ridiculous; we've got to make a profit.
He is adamant that brewers need to look at the beer market, not the ale market. 'It's like British Rail, which thought it was in the railways business, but it was really in the transport business and hit problems from competition by rival modes of transport. It is this thinking about the whole beer market that led Cains to pioneer an entirely new category by developing its cask lager, 'the UK's first premium lager. The beer is brewed with 100% Maris Otter malt, the prime barley of choice for most cask-ale brewers, lagered for three months with 'no short-cuts and then sold at a premium price, 'more than Stella. We're pitching it at the Hoegaarden/Leffe market. It's costing us more to produce it, but we're adding value to the product.
At the end of the day, Sudarghara says: 'The customer is looking for value, and is willing to pay for quality. The moment it's not quality, they won't pay. He also believes that in a declining market 'only the specialists can survive. The larger brewers 'get hurt more, and then they have to close plants and make redundancies.
