West Berkshire Brewery combatting Covid-19 effects with job creation

The UK's West Berkshire Brewery is fighting back against the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic with the creation of 23 new production jobs.

These new jobs bring its total number of staff to 122 and will support its growing brewing and packaging operation, which is now running 24 hours a day, five days a week. A key hire for the company was David Spoko, formerly of the Carlsberg Group, who wan brought in as head of production and supported the increase in production hours. 

The brewery's pipeline of contract customers now exceeds 79 million cans or bottles annually - a 4,000 per cent increase year-on-year from the 2019 total of 1.9 million cans. Ecommerce sales have also increased and are now at 23 times what they were before the lockdown. 

Its range of beers includes Good Old Boy, Detour, Renegade and the alcohol-free Solo.

Tom Lucas, managing director of West Berkshire Brewery, said: "We're proud of our brilliant team for the growth we've achieved despite the climate. The same goes to our loyal customers, whose support for our taproom and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme helped us achieve a record-breaking number of 1,800 covers a week."

29 October 2020 - Bethany Whymark