Westons gears up to make 60m litres of cider

In the next five years, the cider maker has ambitions to grow its cider production to significant levels and plans to make headway with two new appointments.

The producer of Stowford Press, Henry Westons, Mortimer’s Orchard and Rosie’s Pig has appointed ex-Heineken trading director Darryl Hinksman to head of business development and Steve Hadcroft to manufacturing manager.

Hinksman has worked for Westons for the past two years as head of customer marketing and launched Stowford Press Mixed Berries​ this year.

Stowford Press​

Stowford Press continues to outperform the cider category in the on-trade, with brand growth up 2.3% in value (CGA Strategy July 2018).

In his new role, Hadcroft will be responsible for production, quality standards as well as overseeing an integrated management system.

Both will report to Westons managing director Helen Thomas, who said: “I am delighted to welcome both Darryl and Steve to our leadership team.

“I’m sure they will make a huge contribution to our ambitious target to be selling more than 60m litres of Herefordshire-produced cider by 2022.”

Outlines the issues of Brexit​

In a recent interview​ with The Morning Advertiser, ​Thomas, in her official capacity as chair of the National Association of Cider Makers, outlined the issues Brexit could present for the UK’s cider industry.

“We need to know there’s going to be continuity, but also cider makers in the UK import a lot from the EU, such as glass bottles and equipment, and we need to know that tariffs will be fair to allow us to compete with other countries,” she said.

“It’s a big issue because this hugely changing [Brexit] agenda could affect the apple growers and the cider makers because we’re not sure how it’s going to impact on how we do our jobs.”

Brexit would have an effect on cider making in the UK, because it is a complex sector made up of various components from across the UK.