Marston’s Moves to Keep Pace With Growth in Home Market
UK brewer and pub operator Marston’s is ramping up warehouse capacity at its main brewery by as much as 45 per cent in a bid to keep pace with the thriving take-home beer market. Supermarkets and off-licences sold more beer than pubs and clubs for the first time last year as booming demand hit record levels. Marston’s saw take-home trade grow by more than 10 per cent in the last 12 months alone.
The company is putting up four new warehouses at its main Burton brewery to significantly increase storage capacity. The buildings, supplied by Spaciotempo, will create room for as many as 14 million bottles of beer and are the final stage of major plans to increase production at the site following the installation of a new £7.4 million bottling plant.
Sales of beer in pubs dwindled by 0.8 per cent last year, according to figures from the British Beer and Pub Association, while ‘off-trade’ business shot up by 3.5 per cent – taking the home market past the retail trade for the first time on record.
According to Marston’s, the take-home market for lager and premium bottled ale has risen by more than 10.5 per cent year on year.
Emma Gilleland, director of brewing at Marston’s, and Scott Jameson, managing director of Spaciotempo.
Emma Gilleland, director of brewing for Marston’s, says: “We’ve seen significant growth in the take-home market over the last couple of years. More people than ever before are enjoying a drink in the comfort of their own home, so we’ve moved to ensure supply keeps up with demand. The bottling plant, which opened last year, was the first stage of that plan and these new storage facilities will give us the huge amount of extra warehouse capacity we need.”
Spaciotempo is replacing two of the brewer’s existing warehouses at the Burton site with new units that will create a massive 8,500 square metres of storage and space for 13,500 pallets.
Work to erect four 6m-high buildings, each measuring 30 x 85m, is expected to be completed in just three months.
The project is one of the biggest to date for Spaciotempo, which supplies a range of innovative temporary and semi-permanent buildings to a wide variety of industries.
Emma Gilleland adds: “Spaciotempo have played a key role in helping us to grow the business. They’re providing a quality, cost-effective and long-term solution that meets our needs perfectly. Our forecasts indicate the home market will continue to grow and this project will satisfy demand for the next 18 months.”
