Porthmadog’s Purple Moose Brewery is hoping that online sales and home deliveries will help to mitigate the devastating impact that Covid-19 has had on its business.
Normally, this time of year would see its sales rise as drinkers flock to pubs, bars, restaurants, and festivals across the UK. But with social distancing measures now in place for the second month in Wales, this hasn’t been the case.
Purple Moose founder, Lawrence Washington, said: “As a business, most of our custom comes from pubs; bottled beers only make up about 25% and the rest is draught. As soon as the social distancing measures came into place and hospitality businesses were closed down, we lost all of that overnight.
“On the day the lockdown was announced, we had also just moved all of our bottle stock over to a new premises for Siop a Bragdy in Porthmadog. We had barely been open for three hours when we had to close, and we have remained closed ever since.”
Lawrence is hoping that switching focus to online sales will go some way towards keeping the brewery going. “Previously, online sales only made up about 2% of our business, but we are now making our range available for national home delivery through a website called DiscoverDelicious.Wales.
Purple Moose founder Lawrence Washington
“It offers a great way for people to continue to support independent Welsh businesses like ours who are really feeling the pressure, and it also means our customers can still get their hands on our award-winning brews.”
The rise in demand for food home deliveries has prompted DiscoverDelicious.Wales to launch a consolidated home delivery service for store cupboard items and fresh produce essentials — all sourced from a variety of independent businesses in Wales.
By working in partnership with North Wales business Blas ar Fwyd, they have launched a new Food Hall section of the website, where hundreds of items are available for consolidated delivery. The selection includes dairy, bakery, and store cupboard essentials, as well as speciality foods, sweet treats, craft beers, cider, and spirits. Orders from this part of the site will arrive in one delivery at a cost of £12 per delivery, with free delivery available for orders over £45.
Discover Delicious founder, Laura Pickup, said: “When we launched DiscoverDelicious.Wales back in 2018, the number one driving force was to support the incredible community of independent food and drink producers in Wales.
“These are the same businesses — like Purple Moose — that rely heavily on the hospitality industry, local farmer’s markets, and food festivals to reach their customers, and most of those are currently cancelled or closed.”
