BBPA says Beautiful Beer is safe

The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) has denied claims that its Beautiful Beer campaign has hit the buffers.

Rumours have been circulating the industry for weeks that the BBPA was looking to cut back on all consumer-facing activity, or even can the campaign altogether.

Some industry insiders suggested there have been disagreements between brewing and retail members of the BBPA as to the value of the campaign.

However, the BBPA has said that efforts are being focused more squarely on tackling the issues facing brewers in regard to duty and the government's alcohol strategy.

The BBPA's director of communications Mark Hastings told The Publican​ that the organisation would still be investing in Beautiful Beer over the next year - but that the level of activity would not be as high as it had been since its launch in 2005.

"The increased tax burden and high regulatory burden being faced by our brewing members means that they believe it is important for the organisation working on its behalf to focus on the more important issues," he said.

"Once they have been tackled we can then return to focus back on Beautiful Beer more fully."

The Publican​ understands that the campaign's previous activities, such as consumer-facing press events will still take place - but the focus of campaign will be on its awards.

However, this is a blow for the beer industry and will concern many pub companies, who are also members of the BBPA that have spent large sums of money investing in their pubs to become Beautiful Beer Award winners.