Success for Wye Valley at Industry Awards

At the 2009 SIBA Brewing Business awards Wye Valley Brewery were delighted to come away, not only with Best Launch for their limited edition beer Morgan Centenary Ale, which celebrated Morgan Motor Company’s centenary year, but also Overall Winner for their continued commitment to the proactive marketing of their beers.

Well known beer writer Pete Brown presented Wye Valley Brewery with their overall award.

The following was announced by Pete Brown... 'In a departure from previous years, our overall winner for 2009 has not been chosen from one of the category winners alone. The winning brewery has indeed won a category with one of its entries, but the judges decided to combine that achievement with the undoubted quality of its other entries, in recognition of a wide-ranging and extremely impressive overall commitment to the proactive marketing that must be utilised to compliment the brewing of exceptional beer. This really does represent what the SIBA Brewing Business Awards stand for.'

In response to the awards Peter Amor, brewery chairman said, ‘It is incredibly pleasing and satisfying to know that 25 years of dedication from a wonderful team of people has resulted in recognition’.

Needless to say, we were really chuffed to win these awards!

Photo left to right, John Gardner, Wye Valley Brewery Sales Manager, Pete Brown, Beer Writer, Peter Amor Chairman of Wye Valley Brewery

Wye Valley Brewery celebrate growth and record sales

In 2010 Wye Valley Brewery will celebrate their 25th year of brewing, but for now it is toasting record sales. Said Vernon Amor MD of Wye Valley: ‘Cask ale is the star performer in the UK beer market and pubs which offer excellent cask ales are riding the current economic climate far better than those which aren’t. We have grown like for like sales by 24% so far this year. It’s all about quality and provenance, people nowadays are interested in where their food and drink is made, what goes in to it and how far it has to travel before it reaches them. At Wye Valley Brewery we use top quality locally grown hops and have recently teamed up with a local farmer to grow our own Herefordshire barley. We are looking forward to brewing a true Herefordshire beer for our silver anniversary next year.’ Wye Valley Brewery currently employs 30 people and produces over 4.3 millions pints of beer annually. Next year will see major investment to increase capacity and create more local jobs.

Dorothy Goodbody goes for Silver!

Dorothy Goodbody's Country Ale, not long after being awarded Gold at the SIBA Wales and West Competition, has now achieved SILVER in the International Beer Challenge 2009. It seems that quality runs in the family! In 2008 Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout was crowned CAMRA Bottle Conditioned Beer of the Year! Dorothy Goodbody's Country Ale is described by head brewer Jimmy Swan as a strong ruby ale bursting with rich malt flavours and hop bitterness. Dorothy Goodbody's Country Ale is available in bottle all year round, if you haven't tried it you really are missing out on a taste sensation!

Move to lightweight for Herefordshire Brewer

Less than a year ago, in November 2008, Wye Valley Brewery installed its own bottling line on site in Stoke Lacy. To become more environmentally friendly the brewery has now changed all bottled beer products over to lightweight bottles. The new bottles are 21% lighter than the previous format resulting in significant energy savings and will significantly lighten the load for delivery vehicles. There are other advantages of the lightweight bottle, the line is running faster than ever, at up to 3000 bottles per hour. In addition, shrink wrap weight has been reduced by 60% and cardboard and plastic recycling facilities are now in use across the site. Said Head Brewer Jimmy Swan, 'We are constantly looking for ways to improve our business and become more efficient. With our bottled beer sales increasing year on year changing over to lightweight bottles was an important move for us'. Two of Wye Valley’s bottled beer brands are available in Tesco regionally, Butty Bach and Dorothy Goodbody’s Golden Ale. Tesco’s Local Marketing Manager Enfys Fox commented… 'We are delighted to be stocking Wye Valley Ales which are extremely popular with our customers in our stores. It’s great to work with such an enthusiastic team at Wye Valley Brewery who are working very hard to progress their business'. Photo shows head brewer Jimmy Swan with our lovely new lighter bottles.