Despite the north-west-based brewer and pub operator enjoying a good spring and summer in 2025, Robinson stated the business will cost £2m more this year versus last year.
He added any challenges for a business tend to take place 12 months after a major Government change and explained: “If we look at employer national insurance contributions, for example, which put nearly £1m on our wage bill across 30 managed sites alone – we’ve got the same issues and challenges across all of our pub partners as well – but it normally takes 12 months for that to really hit.
“I do worry about next year because we have more costs going into our business and our customers have less cash in their pockets – this is down to what we assume is going to happen in the Autumn Budget.
Hopes on business rates reforms
“We’re doing OK this year but going into next year and beyond, we will continue to have challenges so let’s just hope things like business rates reform actually happen sooner rather than later.”
Robinson added the Government must listen to the sector on challenges such as employer national insurance contributions, Extended Producer Responsibility and the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme.
He claimed more Government policies often fail to make a meaningful difference to the industry and simply add further costs and bureaucracy.
Robinson also expressed happiness over the opening – and transfer of many of the business’s facilities – to its new site in Bredbury, which is three miles away from the original Unicorn Inn operation in the centre of Stockport, where brewing has taken place for close to 200 years.
Great memories
There has been an £8.4m investment at the new brewery, which has been up and running since December 2024, with all brewing ceased at the Unicorn site on 28 March 2025.
Robinson explained work is ongoing in terms of deciding what to do with the original premises on Lower Hillgate – and this will take a year or two – yet he has great memories of being at the site some 50 years ago as a young boy.
He said: “My earliest memories there are from when I was four or five years old. We’ve stopped brewing at our Unicorn Brewery, but we had to make sure we had a business fit for purpose for the next generation, which is secured with this brewhouse move.
“Our job is to make sure we hand this business over to the next generation in an evolved state.”
