Jul 31 2020
SBDRC – Role Reversal & Delayed Outrage
In so much as I am not employed currently by a beer business, I am not within the beer industry. Merely an interested observer, looking from the outside in.
What I do for a living is Data Analysis. I find and receive information, research that information to assess its veracity, compare it with other information, then draw conclusions based on that information.
Which is why – unlike the bulk of the beer Commentariat – I wasn’t “blindsided” by the Government announcement on Small Brewers Duty Relief last week. The people behind the SBDRC (Small Brewers Duty Reform Coalition) and BBPA (British Beer and Pub Association) are ruthless businessmen and entrepreneurs, some self – identifying as the latter, rather than being beer people.* They are politically connected, savvy individuals. They employ – collectively – PR operatives. They care about money. And that the Micro Brewing sector is – bit by bit – making inroads into volumes.
Yes, some of these businesses are “generations old” family owned entities (Harveys, Lees, Holts etc), but several of the bigger players are formed over years of Merger & Acquisition Activity (a phrase that may be repeated later….) and themselves have been “acquired” (see Fullers and – more recently – Marstons) by Multi-National conglomerates.
But – despite the repeated spin coming from a number of angles – many of these companies (in a UK sense) cannot be described as “Small”, or even “Medium sized” breweries. They are big businesses. With profits in the £Ms – as you will see below. These companies – by dint of their additional membership of the BBPA – operate hand in hand with those Multi-National conglomerates that they (with their piteous and mendacious whining) claim are “squeezing” them. Think Asahi, ABInbev, Carlsberg, Heineken, Molson Coors….. List of members here
Now then. If you are going to complain about profitability and growth etc….. then don’t whine when you’re making 7 figure profits. It’s a SERIOUSLY bad look fellas. Especially when you’re screwing the Micro’s.
Anyway. Back to Rupert….
“We strongly condemn the current campaign of intimidation supporting the request, which runs against the normally friendly and collegiate nature of brewers…” It’s strange isn’t it. How people might be offended by attacks on the businesses and companies they hold dear… Hardly “collegiate” behaviour, eh Rupert.
Hogs Back made a profit in 2017 of £270,927. In 2018 they made £349,567, up £78,640 on the previous year. (Source here) I don’t personally know a brewery that wouldn’t envy being “squeezed” to such a profitable extent. All that whilst investing
More of that “struggle”, whilst conniving with their profitable friends to strangle Micros almost at birth. Forgive me if I shed no tears.
Now then. The British Beer & Pub Association (or BBPA). The organisation which comprises of the biggest brewers in Britain – mostly members of SBDRC – (with the exception of Brew Dog), cheek by fattened jowl with the International Beer Monoliths. ABInbev, Asahi, Carlsberg, Heineken & Molson Coors
Yes. Yes. I’m sure they will be celebrating…. But wait… “…. it hopes the measures announced today will BUILD on the success of SBR….” Errr….. And as for those “long standing distortions….” that’s the Duty relief Emma. That many of your members campaigned for, benefitted from and now want to have removed from others….. That was brought in to assist small brewers who didn’t have the economies of scale of – what are now – er…. YOUR MEMBERS! Jesus may weep……
Remember those profit figures from Harveys earlier? They would probably cover the profits from every Micro in the Greater Manchester area. And then some. Again, Crocodile tears. As for their “best intentions”? Worthless hypocrisy.
Right then. I’m done. This whole SBDRC thing has exhausted me. I’ve been ranting for almost 2 and a half years (not weeks….) into – what has seemed to be a void. Now that void has been filled by beer writers. Journalists if you will. With far greater profile and reach than I.
I haven’t the patience of Steve Dunkley – and you REALLY need to read his thoughts on this, he’s quite forensic. I’ve a full time job. And a (Virtual) beer festival to organise. I’ll remain an outsider. Looking in. With interest.
Go read. Go get organised. And save your Independent Breweries. And be kind to one another.
Back Soon. Jx
01/08/2020 @ 12:27 pm
Eloquently put Jim. Whilst being no fan of Dick and Wattie, they haven’t forgotten where they came from, whereas twunts like darling Rupert just don’t care because it’s not their background.
The biggest surprise to me is Miles Jenner,who certainly hasn’t appeared to be like this previously.
Strange times mate.
01/08/2020 @ 12:29 pm
Strange times indeed. The one thing that I can be positive about, is this Government has previous for caving in to pressure.
Here’s hoping.
02/08/2020 @ 6:47 am
Beers Manchester
Fascinated. Can you please find time for a chat about this and the bigger picture please?
07768 096 761
Best wishes. Mark
02/08/2020 @ 7:46 am
Lovely to chat. And – like I said – always happy to.
02/08/2020 @ 8:40 am
You should have pointed out that the BBPA are members of SIBA and that is how they can claim that there is support across the industry for a review ( 700 plus members ) despite the membership voting against it. If someone in SIBA now kicked up such a stink about that as we did previously about Molson Coors , Heineken etc being members as it is a confict of interest and the rest of the complacent , moribund membership got behind it there is a chance it could happen but there is no appetite gor it and no cohesion. We and others made ourselves unhappy fighting against this for years , tried to enlist the help of other brewers before this shit happened before it did .
It is the fact that the BBPA and SBDRC are members of SIBA and thier connections that has made this possible. Membership of both SIBA and the BBPA should be mutually exclusive . It is a clear conflict of interest and a no brainer that the largely entitled middle class white boy microbrewing establishment needs to get behind if it is to salvage anything from this disaster which for those of us who tried to do something about it has been a car crash in slow motion .
Any article or campaign must point out that on the two most important votes in its history :
_1 . Review of SBDR
2. Unclusion in the membership of brewers over 200,000hl
Both of which were voted down by majorities at AGM that SIBA went aginst the expresss wishes and interests if the majority of the membership and and therefire Small Brewers . Why ? Because the founder members if SIBA have climbed the greasy pole and suckle from the multinationals and they run SIBA through a structure they created and manipulate that allows this shit . SIBA exists to promote thier interests and can only boast a large membership because of Beerflex which demands no minimum price for beer from the pubco’s it relies on and supports .( where was SIBAS opposition the the Heineken takeover of Punch?) a curory examination of Beerflex shows that it is more advantageous to the earlier members of SIBA who unlike later members arse aallowed to cut private deals with the pubcos . That is what the aquisition of Flying Firkin was about but it failed because if the light we and others shone on it .
We had made ourselves very unpopular as boat rockers crying out for Nick Staffords removal ages before it actually happened . His removal is a Phyrric victory and he was offered up as a smokescreen by the BBPA who continue to run the thing .
It is only by exposing SIBA as a poinless Trojan Horse where the members are actually pissing into a gale and trying to wake them up as we did that any credible opposition can come .
If SIBA is still seen by thier members as representing thier interests and carries on with the same structure then Small scale brewing as a real penomrnon in this country is doomed.
The brewing sector is cutthroat not “ collegiate “ as Rupert says nor is it the happy clappy vision of those Microbrewing PseudoHippies who like lemmings entered into a market that could not accomodate them unless it grew and the only way it could grow was into the sector controlled by majors who also control SIBA . There is no way these people can start any organisation to rival SIBA if thier previous inaction is anything to go by . The only toute is the one we have constantly pursued and that is to point out the obvious corruption and conflict of interest at the heart of SIBA and to clean it up and take it over . We and others made some inroads into this but were let down by the resounding complacency and inability of other members and the wider microbrewing sector to see what was going on.
I would say on the basis of all the above there is little hope and that those who do not stand up for themselves when they have to and when it is obvious they should really deserve no better.
Dont shoot the messenger . I am going into nanobrewing and just get on with my own business because frankly i cant deal with all the wilfully myopic happy clappy hypocrisy any longer
02/08/2020 @ 8:51 am
I’m no messenger shooter. And completely understand your points re SIBA. I – personally – believe that Small Brewers need to get / remain organised. And – at present – the only vehicle for that (with all of its flaws) is SIBA.
Having briefly chatted with James Calder at an SBDRC debate, he talks the talk far better than his predecessors like Mike Benner. And – again just my opinion – there is currently, at a time of crisis, no alternative vehicle. Individual small businesses shouting into a political void will achieve nothing. They require focus and a single (amplified) voice.
Changing SIBA – if possible – will take time. And a start would be to have a volume level above which you either become excluded, or lose voting rights.
But hey. I’m an old romantic Trade Unionist. With that core belief that, with the right arguments (expressed eloquently), you CAN change things.
I’m the guy with the bruised forehead from butting that wall.