Asahi UK is to close its brewing facility in Greenwich and move production of Meantime and Dark Star brands to the Fuller’s brewery site in Chiswick, London.
Asahi said the move would help to “leverage Asahi’s extensive brewing expertise and capabilities, while also supporting the growth potential of its full UK beer brand portfolio through more efficient, sustainable operations”.
The company does insist that the Dark Star and Meantime brands would retain “their own unique brand identities”.
Asahi acquired the Meantime brand in 2016. Dark Star had been bought by Fuller’s in 2018 and moved to Asahi when the Japanese brewer purchased Fuller’s brewing business in 2019.
Asahi says plans are under way to create a “standalone consumer retail experience” in Greenwich celebrating the heritage of the Meantime brand. The brewery was founded in 1999 by Alastair Hook.
“Multinationals constantly seek out the authenticity of smaller brands, whose integrity is tied to their founding, their place of production, and the love and care that comes from a team of skilled brewers,” said Gillian Hough, of the Campaign for Real Ale.
“Buying up and consolidating these brands in the name of profit not only strips communities of their brewing heritage, and creates redundancies for the brewers themselves, it often fundamentally destroys what made that beer special in the first place, and reduces consumer choice to a meaningless selection between products owned by a single brand.”
