The crisis of brewing & the crisis of capitalism
The rate of inflation is not going down as forecast and an economic recession has been announced.
No sector of the economy will be immune and not many individuals either- Rishi Sunak the wealthiest MP might be one.
In brewing a crisis is accelerating.
The Suffolk brewer Adnams, a regional to national brewer has announced its looking for investment to secure its future. What this means is not clear. Adnams is a listed company so it is legally required to say something. It is not required to disclose commercially confidential discussions.
Adnams, though not a brewer specifically associated with the Tory Party, in fact in some ways far from it, is still part of what historically is called the Beerage. If it has issues its likely that many other breweries will have them too.
At the other end of the scale Elland Brewery, which brews the CAMRA Award winning 1872 Porter (a favourite of mine) has gone into liquidation. Details are sparse but again it’s a concern that a brewery which has such a high profile beer on its portfolio can’t keep going
Issues mentioned include the cost of raw materials, fuel and labour costs.
Brewdog to note one example has reduced wages but this is crazy economics.
A cost of living crisis is hitting breweries and pubs because people can afford to go out less as their wages are falling short of rising costs, particularly at the moment Truss legacy mortgages. If they are paid less they go out even less and trade in pubs is hit more. A doom loop.
CAMRA has called for duty on draught beer in pubs to be given a higher rate of relief to ease financial pressures all round. There is also a long standing demand to address business rates for pubs.
Whether the Government will act we shall see. MPs can be lobbied and will listen if they get enough e-mails particularly in an Election year.
It would be surprising if a Conservative Government was not concerned that a major brewer like Adnams has issues. Then again as numbers might say, is this really in any meaningful sense a traditional Tory Government?
On Radio 1 this morning they tried to claim wages are going up and possibly that ‘we have never had it so good’ – the pundits might have been in one of my classes, bless ’em, good broadcasters and clever with the tech but not particularly able to perceive the bigger picture…