Breweries on the move: West Berks plans new site; Jarrow seeks funds to expand

Jarrow Brewery, producer of Rivet Catcher, Caulker and other ales, is also on the march. The brewery, founded in 2002, describes itself as “the biggest small brewery in the North-east”, and plans a share issue in 2015 to enable it to expand. It sells beer to the Sir John Fitzgerald chain of pubs in the region, along with Punch Taverns.

In 2013 it obtained funding of more than £220,000, including £140,000 from the government’s Regional Growth Fund, to move to a 40-barrel plant on the Bede Industrial Estate in Durham where it produces some 18,000 barrels a year. It now plans to add a kegging line and will export to the eastern states of the U.S.

Brewery sales and marketing manager Mike Berriman says: “There’s real potential for us to increase our sales and workforce over the next three to five years. The North-east is our heartland trading area. Outside of that our plans are to sell to the national market place, then to look at export markets.”