The Big Interview: John Holberry, Growler Brewery

“It produced a very creamy pint,” he says. “It was a wonderful beer. After they banned the autovac it was never the same.”

Perhaps we’re better off without the autovac. But Holberry isn’t so sure about Stones Brewery, closed by Bass Brewery in 1999.

Stones produced a quaffable golden ale that would these days be the height of fashion. It also possessed what would now be a prized provenance as the beer of Sheffield.

“Stones was a million-barrel brand, the only beer people in Sheffield wanted to drink, and it got ditched,” says Holberry, who was a member of the board that gave it the chop. I would have fought hard to keep Stones if I knew then what I know now, but nobody knew what the consumer would want next. It would have taken a brave man to keep it going.”

Holberry left Molson Coors, as Bass became, four years ago. Since then, and an abortive year at Mag-ners cider maker C&C Group, he’s “gone plural” as he puts it, personally investing in a variety of businesses.

The latest investment brings him back into brewing. But on a rather smaller scale. He’s putting his money, expertise and infectious enthusiasm into Growler, the microbrewery formerly known as Nethergate.

Two days a week he leaves his Midlands home for a bunch of sheds in a field somewhere along the Essex border with Suffolk. There he works at building a brand that aims not to conquer the world, nor even the UK, but Essex. It could almost be Stones.

“I’m back where my heart is, in brewing,” he says. “It’s something I wanted to get back into. I missed it.”

Nethergate was one of the first wave of microbreweries, founded in the same year Holberry entered the industry. It gained a reputation for winning awards and producing unusual beers such as Old Growler porter and the coriander-laced Umbel Magna.

But there was little ambition to grow the business until two years ago, when it was taken over by former Adnams commercial director Rob Flanagan. He renamed the brewery after its most famous beer and won the title of Brewery of the Year in the Good Pub Guide 2012. This is how it came to the attention of Holberry.

“I had a meeting with Rob and I was impressed,” he says. “It’s not just the product, it’s the people behind it that are important to me. What I found at Growler was a great team without the resources to achieve its potential. And I love the beer business, of course, so it was an emotional call as well.”

Brewing was a straightforward career choice for Holberry — once he’d tried the law, policing and selling soap powder.

“In my 20s I did a range of things I didn’t really enjoy, and I’ve always thought that it’s fabulous if you can work in a business you like, that you can get passionate about.

“And I was interested in only three things — football, women and beer. I was no good at football and don’t think my wife would have appreciated it if I’d taken up women professionally, so it had to be beer. I was a good consumer and I thought brewing could benefit from my input. I knew what people were looking for.”

He began at Courage, where he became sales director for the north before taking over as managing director of Bass North West.

National roles for Bass and a seat on the board followed. When Bass split he stayed in Burton-upon-Trent with Coors, firmly believing the future was lager, and especially Carling.

“A big company can only get energised by big ideas and it’s quite difficult for it to respond to local needs. That’s why global brewers brew beers for refreshment — and they tend to be lagers.

“Big companies work better with fewer products too. It’s perfectly sensible to consolidate in your areas of strength. And consumers were
different then. They sought solace in trusted brands. Everyone was going to lager.

“Bass was formed from 17 brewery companies. It didn’t make sense to keep all those breweries open. And when big brewers couldn’t own pubs any more they needed massive TV campaigns behind a single brand, so you got a carpet-bombing approach to advertising. That was how brands succeeded in the 1980s right through to the mid-90s.”

When it came to ales, Bass was forced to choose one. And it chose Worthington’s rather than Stones — a decision that Holberry finds
ironic now that Molson Coors has shown its faith in local brewing by buying Sharp’s.

“Bass closed Stones to save £1m, and then Molson Coors paid £20m for Sharp’s — and it’s in Cornwall!

It’s hardly a cost-driven decision. And it shows something’s happened to the market.

“We’re in a different time. Consumers want to find things for themselves, there’s a focus on taste. They’re looking for quality rather than a label. That’s why Molson Coors bought Sharp’s.

“We can’t do what they do, we haven’t got the firepower. But there’s an opportunity for Growler around taste and around responding to local communities, and we’ve found a market segment that’s not well served at the moment — Essex ale drinkers.”

Even without Holberry’s backing, Growler has made good progress. Its rebranding — using a bowler-hatted bulldog — has seen sales soar. Now a seven-year plan aims to expand the business five to 10-fold, adding a tied estate of 10 to 15 pubs “that appeal to the social element that goes with cask ales”, adding good food, letting rooms and, more surprisingly, a separate shop for off-sales.

“Ale is missing out enormously in the off-trade,” Holberry believes. “People drink wine and lager at home because they can’t get ale in an acceptable format. I think we can do that on a local basis.”

“It’s a modest expansion, really,” he adds. “But here in month two it looks huge, and there’s a limited time in which to do it. Eventually, there will be consolidation among microbrewers. We might get to 1,500 breweries but that will drop to 600 or 700, and we want to get Growler into a position where we can get a good share of the cask ale sold in Essex.

“Desire for cask ale won’t go away. It’s driven by consumer needs. It’s about localness. People want to know where their food and drink comes from. They feel powerless in the face of massive businesses and there’s a heck of an advantage in being the guy they know.”