Herefordshire Business News: Wye Valley Brewery in £2m expansion (From Hereford Times)
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Herefordshire Business News: Wye Valley Brewery in £2m expansion
10:00am Friday 6th July 2012 in Business
By Mark Bowen
Wye Valley Brewery is making a £2m investment in expanding the brewery. From left are: Jimmy Swan, head brewer of Wye Valley Brewery; Steve Midgeley of Microdat; Vernon Amor, managing director of Wye Valley Brewery; and Richard Cryer of Watergate.
A HEREFORDSHIRE company is making a £2m investment in a state-of-the-art brew house.
Wye Valley Brewery based in Stoke Lacy, is making the investment to expand its facilities to keep up with growing demands for its beers having sustained year-on-year double digit growth for more than five years running.
This expansion will see the installation a completely new brewhouse with the design retaining all the features of a traditional English brewery including using whole hop flowers.
It will also incorporate cutting edge features representing a quantum leap in terms of energy consumption and sustainability. Furthermore, it will provide a much better physical environment for brewers and visitors alike.
The project is being delivered by British engineering firm Microdat. They are teaming up with Watergate Construction for the second time on a brewery build having successfully developed Moorhouse’s in Burnley.
The main brewing vessels will also be manufactured in the UK by a company called Musk.
“We underwent a lengthy evaluation of various potential suppliers and it is extremely heartening that we have been able to find top quality companies in the UK to carry out our expansion," said head brewer Jimmy Swan.
As part of the on going expansion the brewery is also taking on an engineering supervisor.
Hywel Davies is an experienced electrical and mechanical engineer having done his apprenticeship at Bulmers in Hereford and also having worked at Westons Cider.
In 2002 the company, founded by ex-Guinness brewer Peter Amor in 1985, moved from the stable block of The Barrels in St Owen's Street, Hereford, to the much larger current site in Stoke Lacy.
