New Ossett Brewery MD Alex Minett with owner Jamie Lawson
Yorkshire’s Ossett Brewery is poised for its next stage of growth with the appointment of Alex Minett as managing director.
Alex comes from a role as on-trade sales director at Red Bull. At Ossett, he will be tasked with accelerating growth following a £1.7m investment in brewing capacity, warehouse facilities and equipment, building works, and new packaging resources.
Alex said: “I am really looking forward to playing my part in taking Ossett forward at this very exciting time. The brewing and pub industry is experiencing a very vibrant period, with many new challenges and opportunities.
“Ossett has a reputation for having amazing people and for producing excellent beers, and I look forward to harnessing both to help deliver a successful future for the brewery and the brands.”
Award-winning brands Yorkshire Blonde, Silver King, and Excelsior have been part of Ossett’s core range since the brewery’s inception in 1998, and are sold across its own estate of 27 pubs, alongside hundreds of free trade accounts and through selected wholesalers. Ossett has a group turnover of £17m and a workforce of over 400 local employees.
Ossett has invested more than £3m in its existing brewery and its new Salt facility
Work is under way on a brewery rebrand in November, featuring new pumpclip designs for the core range and seasonal beers, and a new company logo.
Ossett has invested more than £3m over the last two years in the existing Ossett Brewery site and its new brewery, Salt Beer Factory, in Saltaire. Salt Beer Factory is a microbrewery and entertainment venue in a grade II listed Edwardian tram shed in the heart of the Unesco World Heritage village of Saltaire. The brewery concentrates on producing modern hop-forward beers in keg and can format.
Salt celebrated double success in this year’s World Beer Awards. There was a UK gold medal in black IPA class for Answer is None (7.2% ABV) and a UK bronze for American IPA Alpaca DDH IPA (6.6% ABV). Both winners were first brewed in March this year.
Ossett owner, Jamie Lawson, said: “As we complete our very substantial investments in the brewery, we are delighted to welcome Alex to the team. These are very exciting and challenging times in the fiercely competitive brewing and pub industry.
“We are now set to build on our roots as a high-quality cask ale brewer and further grow business for our brands across cask, keg and packaged categories. Alex brings his wealth of experience at Red Bull to play a lead role in that growth.”
