Timothy Taylor’s ceases cask production and furloughs staff
It said it aimed to continue to produce bottled beer for retail customers and its own online store. However, the business said it had been forced to furlough most of its workforce and operate on a skeleton crew working part time to keep it active.
Despite these setbacks, the Yorkshire brewer remained optimistic about the future and said it was looking forward to restarting full production later this year.
Confidence for the new year
Sales director Paul Matthews (pictured) said: “Once the reopening of our industry is confirmed, we can assure you that we will be ready to meet demand and support our trade customers once again – as we were last summer.”
Keighley-based Timothy Taylor’s was established in 1858 and moved to its present site in the Knowle Spring in 1863. The brewer operates 19 pubs across Yorkshire and supplies its beers – including its main brand, Landlord – to retailers.
In its full year results for the 52 weeks ended 30 September 2019 published in June last year, Timothy Taylor’s reported sales of £25.5m (£23.7m 2018) and an operating profit of £1.98m (£1.55m 2018).
UK breweries
As the UK went into lockdown last year, panic buying dramatically boosted volume sales for food and drink retailers, while for the brewery sector the closure of pubs had a devastating effect.
Beer sales plunged by 40% in March compared with the same period the year before, as some breweries reported losing 98% of their business as a result of on-trade shutting down in light of the pandemic.
Publicans were forced to ditch an estimated 70m pints of spoilt beer, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). In fact, many pubs and brewers offered consumers’ free beer and some of the unsaleable beer was donated to farmers for organic fertilisers or even as animal feed.
