Craft beer growth helps boost Simpsons Malt finanical results
Growth in the market for craft beers, together with the growing globalisation of the brewing industry and steady demand from the distilling sector, helped return a “solid” set of financial results for Berwickupon-tweed headquartered independent maltsters, Simpsons Malt.
The company – which is still family-owned and includes agricultural trading divisions Mccreath, Simpson & Prentice (MSP), and John Guthrie Ltd – reported a marginal decrease in profit before tax to £9.3 million, down from £9.9m last year, with turnover also back during 2016.
The year saw continued investment in the business, with the group’s capital expenditure standing at £6,625,000 as the new malt packaging facilities and warehouse at the group’s Norfolk site were fully commissioned. Commenting on the figures, the company’s managing director, Tim Mccreath said that although there had been a considerable increase in volumes of brewing malts, these had not fully offset the fall-off on the distilling side. He said that malt sales values also declined during the year due to further decreases in malting barley prices and these factors combined to reduce both turnover and profit before tax said Mccreath.
However, he was upbeat on future trends, saying the prospects for the malting business remained extremely positive.
He said that although the distilling markets remained relatively flat in response to recent weakness in whisky sales, there had been sign so fan up turn in sales in 2016: “And whilst spirit production is expected to lag this sales growth, the long-term opportunities for this sector remain positive. Brewing opportunities continue to grow and we are well placed to benefit from a rapidly changing and increasingly specialised global brewing market.”