Orders see brewery set up subsidiary in Spain

ARRAN Brewery has set up a Spanish subsidiary company and opened warehouses near Zaragoza to help the growth of its exports to southern Europe.

The island-based craft beer maker made its bow in the country almost two year ago by appearing at the ArteBeer event.

It was then successful in securing listings in specialist beer shops and then began sending kegs of its beers to bars around Spain.

Gerald Michaluk, Arran owner, said the decision to invest in the warehouses reflected the growing sales the business is seeing in that part of Europe.

He said: “Our expansion in Spain is a result of the growing demand for craft beer and with our two Spanish brewers on staff we have a natural affinity with Spanish.

“Sales have been growing steadily in both France and Spain and we felt it was time to open our own warehouse to ensure beer is kept in perfect condition for that market.”

Mc Michaluk said he hopes he will be able to add further workers in Spain in the coming months.

Earlier this year Arran opened an office in the United States and registered as an importer there.

Mr Michaluk has only recently returned from visiting prospective distributors in six US states.

He added: “The US visit is the start of our invasion of the American market and we have had a very good response and hope to announce the first six of our distributors later in the year with our beers being in market for Halloween.”

Arran’s range of beers include Arran Blonde, Dark and Sunset.

Last month it purchased the small Devil’s Dyke brewery in Cambridgeshire to help build sales in London and the south east of England.

The business is also working on expanding into bars with projects in the Ayrshire town of Kilbirnie and a bigger scale brewery and visitor centre being planning at St Fillans by Loch Earn.