Peterborough brewer warns fears grow with each week of lockdown

Adrian Posnett, managing director of Oakham Ales, In Maxwell Road, Woodston, says that with the national closure of pubs, brewers are facing a major cashflow problem.

The third national lockdown has come at what would traditionally be a quiet time for the industry but it would have been buoyed by successful Christmas and New Year period.

Mr Posnett said: “January and February are always difficult months in terms of trade and we traditionally rely on buoyant December trading to help us through the early part of a year.

“So with pub trade during December 2020 totalling only 11.4 per cent of that in 2019 - and this on top of the huge and prolonged disruption to trade since late March - that does put us in a very tight situation at the moment.

“There are definitely a tough few months ahead. In fact with every week that passes in lockdown the situation does become more critical.”

The big problem for brewers like ourselves at the moment is cashflow.”

Many business leaders have been critical of the new £4.6 billion of Government aid unveiled by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Mr Posnett said: “What is urgently needed is an immediate implementation by the Government of further Business Continuity Loans.

“Although some very limited help has been put in place for the hospitality sector, no assistance has been pledged to producers like ourselves.

He said: “We are lucky in that we own our premises and most of our equipment and unlike many other brewers, have no large loans set against the business.

“So we are cautiously hopeful that we will be able to get through this and are working hard to ensure our survival.

“However with significant numbers of our customers unlikely to survive into the second half of 2021, it is almost certain that the Oakham Ales of the medium term future will be operating on a rather smaller scale than we’d reached in 2019.”

Oakham Ales has placed about 70 per cent of its staff on furlough each week since the start of November.

Mr Posnett said: “The increased flexibility of the furlough scheme has been a help in enabling us to cope with the occasional small upward spikes of business during November and December.”

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