Ahead of its fifth anniversary, North Brewing Co has unveiled its new multi-million pound home in North Leeds.
The NorthBrewing team in their new home
Springwell, located in a former tannery on Buslingthorpe Lane, will see North Brewing Co double its capacity, open a new 500-cover taproom, and move its bar and brewery HQ under one roof.
The careful restoration of the 21,000 square foot factory sympathetically showcases its industrial heritage while creating a bright, modern brewery.
Creating new jobs and securing many more, the move will see North’s brewing output increase to 2.8 million pints a year. North has received Business Growth Programme Fund money from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to support the project and generate seven jobs in the business.
The taproom will be home to the hugely successful Eat North street food festivals, which will be held at the venue every weekend. And North is already planning to host a number of beer festivals at the new site in 2021, inviting breweries, friends, and collaborators from around the world to Leeds.
Moving into the new site
Springwell will also be home to the North Brewing Co webshop — an area of the business that has seen growth of 800% so far this year. The webshop offers free delivery on all orders over £20 within a sixmile radius of the brewery.
North Brewing co-founder, John Gyngell, said: “We are incredibly excited to make the move to Springwell. The last five years have seen fantastic growth at the brewery: we have consistently doubled our production year on year, and have reached the limits of our capacity to brew at our current site. Our strong sales mix, including export, supermarkets, and online sales, has seen us achieve record growth throughout 2020.
“The support in Leeds for our business has been phenomenal, and we’ve been humbled by the love shown for our brand. We are inspired by breweries in the USA who have created destination taprooms at their breweries, and we cannot wait to do something similar in North Leeds.
“Creating a hub for North at the brewery will strengthen the connection between our team, bars, brewery, and wider community. The bars are currently operating as pop-up North Brewing Co bottle shops during lockdown, and have played a massive role in the success of the brewery.”
While 2020 has undoubtedly been the most challenging year of business for North Brewing Co and North Bar Ltd, it has seen a number of successes. In March, North was crowned best brewing pub company at the Publican Awards. It was awarded
Honest Brew’s people’s choice and visual excellence awards, and took home business innovation and brewery business of the year at SIBA’s annual conference.
In addition, Jo Wilkinson was named ‘one to watch at the Northern Finance Director Awards, and John Gyngell and Christian Townsley were again listed in the NRB top 50.
North’s original brewery, in Sheepscar, will be home to the Taverner’s Walk Small Batch Project — an experimental arm of the brewery, allowing North to explore barrel ageing, sours, and fermentation projects.
North had planned to hold an opening party at Springwell on 27th November. However, in true 2020 style, they’re taking the party to Zoom. North has brewed Springwell Lager — its first flagship beer from the new brewery — and will be raising a glass to toast the new site on the 27th at 7pm. Springwell Lager will go on sale on 25th November via the webshop and pop-up bottle shops. Full details of the Zoom brewery tour and toast will be released via social media in the run-up to the event.
