Carlsberg Marstons has announced that its Ringwood Brewery will now close, after a hunt to find a buyer was called off.
Ringwood was founded in 1978 by microbrewery trailblazer Peter Austin. It created classic beers such as Old Thumper and Forty-Niner, with its Hampshire hog logo instantly recognisable to drinkers.
However, it transpires that Anthony Swift, a former City corporate finance adviser, was leading a consortium of private investors hoping to keep the business open.
“This catastrophic announcement speaks volumes about the state of corporate Britain in the 2020s,” he said. “Just ten years ago, Ringwood Brewery was operating at capacity, producing about 42,000 barrels of beer a year. Since then, it has lost 75% of its production and its soul.
“There has been no support for the brands (when did you last see a Ringwood Brewery beer glass or a beer mat in a pub?), local sponsorships of great events like the New Forest Show, the Ellingham Show, and the Great Dorset Steam Fair have been cancelled, employment on the site has plummeted as operations have been corporately centralised, and production of the bottled beers has been relocated to Burton-on-Trent, and the much loved and popular brewery tours have been cancelled as they are, in corporate doublespeak, non-core for Carlsberg Marstons. Even the production volumes are now measured in hectolitres!
“My consortium had plans to revive Ringwood Brewery as an independent brewer of local craft ales, an active sponsor of local events, a brewer of seasonal ales, and to bring back to Ringwood the draymen, the marketing team, the sales reps, the finance and HR teams. We would have restored employment from the current 14 on site to probably 30 or 40 people.
Anthony Swift
“Instead, this sham sales process, involving a London firm of estate agents, has been abandoned and the assets are to be stripped. This decision is a tragedy for the pub customers of Ringwood Brewery and the consumers of the craft ales, but above all for the town of Ringwood, which looks set to lose a stack of jobs, a great visitor attraction, and a flagship local employer. I very much hope it’s not too late for this decision to be reversed.”
Beer Today publisher Darren Norbury was a journalist in the local area when Ringwood Brewery was building strongly in the 1980s. “I remember those beers with great fondness,” he said. “Indeed, Ringwood was one of the breweries which triggered by interest in and love of real ales. Being a strong beer lover, I was particularly attracted to the wonderful Old Thumper, then 5.6% ABV, and since watered down.
“It’s a great shame the brewery hasn’t been sold to Anthony’s team, who clearly have Peter Austin’s original ethos at heart. We’ve never needed our independent beer sector to be stronger, especially companies keeping the cask sector alive. And I suppose that’s just what the big boys don’t want.”
Ringwood Brewery was founded in Ringwood in 1978 as one of the UK’s first microbreweries and moved in 1986 to its current site on Christchurch Road, Ringwood, historically the location of the 19th century Tunks Brewery. In 2007, it was purchased by Marston’s plc for £19.2m. In May 2020, it was announced that Marston’s would merge its brewing business, including Ringwood Brewery, with the UK arm of Carlsberg Group into a joint venture.
