Hawkshead Brewery has closed its Cumbrian beer hall with immediate effect.
The Staveley beer hall closed immediately yesterday.
The brewery’s owners, Halewood Artisanal Spirits, said it was consolidating its beer and spirits production in Cumbria.
It said: “In order to be competitive on price we need to utilise our larger state of the art Krones Beer Line at our owned production site in Flookburgh.
“The old small brewery pub site at Staveley is leased and is not sustainable from an energy and efficiency point of view with manually operated equipment which will be unable to cope with the increased volumes.”
Hawkshead Brewery celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022. It was founded by former BBC foreign correspondent Alex Brodie and initially operated from a barn.
The firm said this week that the Staveley Hawkshead Bar was also leased and was no longer profitable to operate. It claimed this was due to the landlord applying new parking charges which deterred customers.
He said: “We strongly refute any suggestions that parking charges on site are responsible for a drop in trade and it seems most people have seen through this flimsy narrative.
“Indeed, since they were implemented in March, we have recorded an incredibly steady number of visitors choosing to use our parking facilities.”
Four people are being made redundant but other brewery staff were being offered the opportunity to relocate to the Flookburgh site, which will also produce Crabbies Ginger Beer and Bankhall British whisky.
The firm said it had renewed and increased the size of its delivery fleet of vehicles for its cask and keg business for a greater service outside of the Cumbria area.
In April 2020, Halewood made 12 staff – including the head brewer – redundant, due to Covid-19.
Westmorland & Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said last night: “This is incredibly sad. I’m appalled at Halewood’s poor treatment of staff, for betraying the heritage of the brand and the brewery, and deserting the community that has underpinned their success for two decades.
“On the positive side, the premises they’ve abandoned are a fantastic opportunity for a local business to move into to employ local people and thrive.”
