Breweries pin survival set up Ferry foodbank

Over the next three days, The Courier will examine a different industry hit by the Coronavirus lockdown. Today, we go inside the food and drink supply chain

Breweries across Scotland are facing the challenge of a lifetime in trying to turn a small part of their business – online sales – into the lifeline they so desperately need to weather the coronavirus crisis.

Having relied on wholesale purchases from specialist beer and drinks distribution companies, as well as exports, it is the sudden growth in the domestic web-based market that will navigate firms through this unprecedented time.

Dundee-based 71 Brewing acted fast to implement changes before the epidemic took hold in the UK, having gained invaluable insight from Italian breweries into what to expect.

Founder Duncan Alexander said: “Breweries we’ve worked with in Italy were giving us updates and we put plans in place as a result.

“When the pubs closed our wholesale and export business just fell of the edge of a cliff.

“Some staff have been put on furlough, some are working at home and it’s only essential staff operating now.

“We’re a very self-contained business so we have the ability to seal ourselves off.”

Although shops selling alcohol are on the list of premises which are allowed to stay open during the lockdown, Duncan said it was in the interests of staff, customers and the brewery to stop on-site off sales when bars and restaurants were shut.

“It’s strange days. One of the most difficult things has been that the landscape has changed almost on a daily basis,” said Duncan.

“It’s trying to keep up with what we’re allowed to, not allowed to and should be doing.

“The government has changed the rules regarding sales. Our tap room was doing on and off, and we were doing deliveries.

“The on sales went, then the off sales, then they came back and we just decided not to reintroduce them.

“We don’t want to be encouraging anyone to come out just now.

“We saw a jump online when the pubs closed and a lot of the specialist beer distributors stopped, so everyone then started ordering direct with us.

“National delivery is still going through couriers, so we have people packing and they are all following extreme hygiene regimes.

“We’ve also got a supermarket subscription service contract in place, so we’re quite lucky in that sense.

“There’s a lot of people who will fall through the cracks.

“I think, when we come out of this, the landscape will look extremely different.

“Not all companies will survive this as a lot of people work on very tight margins or their business is entirely wholesale and that has totally disappeared, so a lot of people are going to suffer in the industry.

“If we can get through this I think we’ll be one of the fortunate ones.”

They brewery is also offering a 20% discount to local NHS staff via their app and website and offering space in their brewery to local food producers who are also delivering goods.

Robert Lindsay, founder of Stonehaven-based brewery six°north, reckons there is no point in trying to export at this time.

“Export is dead. Everyone’s in the same boat,” he said.

“There’s now clarity. We were reorganising our business nearly every day and then having to redesign it the next – that takes a lot of energy.

“At least now we can get on with what we need to get on with.

“We obviously had an online shop and we’ve had to adapt to it being the only part of our business.

“We really had to try to adapt to that for the brewery’s survival and to provide a service to the local community as well.

“All of our venues have been closed since the government announcement and the brewery remains open purely for delivery.

“We’re not producing. Our brewery is now a warehouse and we’re operating as an online sales business.

“We have a stockpile of product we would have been utilising over the next three months, so we’re just using that for now.

“On the staffing perspective, we have to do what’s vital for the business to future-proof ourselves.

“The majority are off on furlough – they are being paid and retained throughout the process. We’re doing the best we can for everyone.

Robert added: “We were running a free delivery service for Aberdeen city and Stonehaven but we’re extending it.

“We’ll cover the north on Thursday and then on Saturday a south delivery for Laurencekirk, Montrose and possibly as far as Dundee.”