Sheffield-based Abbeydale Brewery and their pub tap The Rising Sun have become employee-owned, the team have announced.
The brewery was founded by Patrick Morton in 1996. He always envisaged it as being ‘people powered’ at heart, and now that’s a legal reality.
The changes paves the way for Patrick and his wife, Sue, to retire with the business in good hands, but they stress they’re going nowhere at the moment.
The two businesses will now come under the umbrella of the Sheffield Beerworks EOT (Employee Owned Trust) Ltd.
“It’s leaving the business in the hands of those who know it best, as well as recognising the contribution our employees have made and continue to make,” say the new team on the Abbeydale website.
“For us as employees, it means entrenching our stake in the business and a say in how things are run (a privilege we all enjoy informally already), as well as enhancing the sense of pride and empowerment we share, ensuring a strong understanding of who we are, our values, and how we’re going to use that knowledge to get to where we want to be.
“The name we’ve democratically chosen for the new trust, Sheffield Beerworks EOT Ltd, is a nod to our past — some of our longstanding customers may remember that our early beers, including all of the original Doctor Morton’s series, were released under the Beerworks brand — so it already has a connection to us. It seems like fate to be able to bring back something which was important to our history to now be a part of our future too.”
The new status will be celebrated, of course, with a special beer, called Trust. It will launch at the Rising Sun on Monday (14th October) and will be at the Sheffield Steel City Beer Festival on Wednesday. It’s an easy-drinking, hazy pale ale, sessionable, hopped with Willamette, Nelson Sauvin, and Mosaic.
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