Could you start by telling us how the last few weeks have been for you?
After the initial shock and slight panic, it’s really strange to say it’s been quite invigorating. We were reasonably lucky that our business has never relied heavily on the pub trade. Most of our volume is in bottles via independent retailers, farm shops, festivals and online. The significant growth in the demand direct from consumers, either online or via local doorstep deliveries, has kept us pretty busy and forced us to think differently about what we can achieve.
What positive steps have you taken to get through the lockdown?
We immediately tweaked our online shop. We began by expanding the local area to which we do free deliveries. Then, we set about finding a new courier partner, in order to reduce some of our costs and pass this on to consumers to make our offer even more attractive. We also increased the money we put behind online advertising to really push the direct sales side of our business. That was really important, as a whole summer’s worth of festivals got cancelled overnight. Luckily, we’ve been able to keep our brewing going and there has still been a decent supply of left-over bread from Chalk Hills Bakery, which we use in our beer, as they’ve adapted and explored new models for their business, too.
Are there any innovations of which you are particularly proud?
Like a lot of businesses, we wanted to show some support and bring a little happiness to the frontline workers keeping us safe. So we created the “Buy a beer for a local hero” campaign, #beer4heroes. Basically, we asked our customers to spend £5 to buy four cans of beer. We then matched that to make it eight cans and delivered them to a local hero (either nominated by the buyer or that we found ourselves). Hundreds of our lovely customers got involved which means we have delivered over 1,000 beers to local heroes. This includes the NHS teams at East Surrey Hospital, the ambulance team at Redhill, the entire council refuse collection teams in Earlswood, several food bank and other charity volunteers as well as quite a few posties.
How have your customers been supporting you during this time?
Local delivery orders are up significantly, so it’s great that local beer-drinkers are actively looking to support local small business. It’s always brilliant to see customers coming back time and again. I think the great weather has helped – people must be spending a lot of evenings around the barbecue! Our trade customers have been equally as good – local pubs, like the awesome Garibaldi, have turned themselves into bottles shops and community stores. They were keen to mainly stock local beers, so have really pushed ourselves and the likes of Pilgrim, Dorking and Titsey. They’ve also been great about settling invoices swiftly, which is hugely appreciated when cash is tight, even though they must be feeling the pressure themselves.
Are there any special measures you’ll be bringing in once you re-open/get back to more normality?
Once the lockdown eases and places like pub beer gardens become accessible again, we’d like to find ways to get ice-cold, freshly-poured beers back in people’s hands. Several pubs have been complaining about the big beer companies that run their cellaring systems not being very supportive during the Covid crisis. So, if there are ways we can step in to help out, we’re very keen. We have a portable machine that simply hooks up to a keg and pours ice-cold beer without the need for gas, cellars or anything complicated. So, hopefully, we’ll be popping up in a few local beer gardens as soon as we get the green light.
Why is it so important that people ‘Stay Loyal To Local’ going forward?
You can be pretty certain that a small local business is doing what they’re doing because they love it. You can taste, see, experience that love in the products they make or services they offer. But, as the name suggests, they are often small, even micro businesses that simply don’t have pots of money funding their operation. They will always find it tough to weather storms like the one we are battling at the moment, so the more they can rely on a loyal, supportive local consumer base, the more likely they are to make it out the other side. If you have the means to support them please do – otherwise they simply might not be there next time you want them – and you’ll have to resort to drinking something like Foster’s!
What’s the best way that our community can do that for now?
I think the Local Food Britain community need to be more proactive than ever in supporting each other – from simply liking, sharing and commenting on each other’s social media posts to finding new ways of working together. Some of the best things we done have been alongside other members: Chalk Hills, obviously, but also The Salt Box, Priory Farm, and Fair Dinkum Fare, to name but a few.
Tags: beer
Stay Loyal to Local campaign
