The heart of Hampshire (Ringwood)

This year is a crucial one for Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, marking the start of a new era. Dominic Roskrow reports

Is the glass half full or on its way to being threequarters empty?

If ever there was an example of cold wet post- Christmas reality it came in the shape of the British broadsheet business pages in early January. The turkey had hardly gone cold when the economists poured cold gravy all over the celebrations, pointing to a credit crisis, a potential property slump and a number of indicators that suggest that if the party ever started, the music has been turned off, the lights turned on and the revellers asked to leave the building.

And if that all sounds bad for the economy as a whole, it’s decidedly worse for the drinks industry. The adverse effects of the smoking ban, another year of closures and absorptions, and gloomy forecasts for seasonal sales have all added to the general gloom, and with no British club taking part in next summer’s Euro soccer fest, the unseemly hunt for pub property set to continue and drinks giants Scottish & Newcastle, Heineken and Carlsberg and going about each other like sex-starved stags, 2008 looks no better. How ironic that 20 years after the great British pub sale hit top gear the major pub property groups have grown in to the same monsters that the then Government set out to replace.

I wonder what thoughts were going through the minds of the staff at Ringwood Brewery as they poured themselves an Old Thumper on New Year’s Eve? For them, more than most, the New Year brought a mix of uncertainty, melancholy and excitement as the brewery prepar.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Brewery Focus

Page number : 15