Damm UK took over the Eagle Brewery from Carlsberg Marstons Brewing Company in 2022 but both had been working together since around 2011 when high-gravity Estrella Damm was being imported from Barcelona and the brewery diluted, carbonated and kegged the product for the UK.
Reid explained: “[Damm UK] knew what they were getting, people-wise and plant-wise, when they made the acquisition. Since then, it’s been a completely new world for us.
“Damm has a very different philosophy to regional brewers or other global brewers. I don’t think there’s any other brewery in the country that has had this kind of level of investment. It’s been a real game-changer for us – 63 of my team of 65 trooped across from CMBC to Damm, so it’s great for us... all our jobs are safe.
“They probably wouldn’t have been without Damm coming along and we’re growing the team massively now. We’re currently having the biggest recruitment drive that we’ve had since when I started nearly 19 years ago.”
The level of investment in ‘phase 1’ was around €80m (£68m) and more has been spent as the brewery’s evolution – which is how it is being termed rather than ‘phase 2’ – moves ahead.
Old Speckled Hen brands
Damm UK’s recent acquisition of the Old Speckled Hen brands – which include Old Golden Hen, Old Craft Hen and Old Master Hen – from Greene King means the Bury St Edmunds brewer is producing all formats of the beer with plans in place to road tanker in the different brands in the portfolio so the Eagle Brewery will keg and can products while cask and bottle will be taken care of later.
The split in production at Eagle Brewery is currently close to 50:50 but this is likely to change in months to come as unrevealed brand production comes into play at the site.
Production is around 1m hectolitres right now and this is set to rise too. The last time it was near this height was back in 2012 when it was “just shy” of 1m hectolitres.
Regional brewer Charles Wells broke ground on the brewery in the mid-70s and was keen to grow, having been located in a somewhat landlocked area.
Red Stripe
Reid explained the brewer moved to the current Bedford base in 1975, started producing in 1976 and were growing Red Stripe as a brand but wanted to move to a state-of-the-art brewery that made ales and lagers.
He continued: “They merged with Young’s in about 2006 and I joined in 2007 because there was a big expansion on the back of the Young’s merger so Young’s Bitter, Young’s Special, etc all came here.
“That was a lot of cask brewing because they were also doing Eagle IPA and Bombardier. The Young’s beers came here and went into cask, plus Courage and Directors also came in around that time as well.”
He added there was a massive expansion with roughly a quarter of the production being cask. It peaked in 2012 at just under 1m hectolitres with Charles Wells’s ethos being to keep the brewery full and buy in brands.
The McEwen’s and Younger’s range followed, giving Charles Wells a boost but then the brewer decided it wanted to get out of big brewing and supplying supermarkets so it sold the business to Marston’s, and Marston’s went into a joint venture with Carlsberg to make CMBC.
