It’s been a difficult year for all of us in one way or another. With many businesses forced to close indefinitely and many jobs lost, no one will ever forget the impact that COVID-19 has had on our lives. However, an industry that we maybe don’t consider enough when thinking about the consequences of Coronavirus is the brewing industry.
As the UK initially entered lockdown and panic buying boosted sales for food and drink retailers, the closure of pubs had an astounding effect on the brewery sector. It is estimated that 70 million pints of spoiled beer were discarded, according to the British Beer & Pub Association, and beer sales plunged by 40% compared to March of 2019.
As lockdown shifted drinking habits away from pubs and bars and into our homes, smaller breweries struggled to adapt. Many smaller breweries didn’t have the infrastructure to divert sales in the same way as their larger counterparts, and therefore struggled. Of 282 varied breweries surveyed by SIBA in April and it was found that 54% had received no government support. In order to combat losses, many craft brewers turned to packaging their own beer and selling to wholesalers or directly to customers. While this provided a lifeline, packaging and selling beer in this way didn’t come without its challenges.
Craft brewers aren’t able to meet value for money targets as easily as larger brewers, as to do so would remove any profit margin. A somewhat bizarre issue also facing brewers looking to package their own product was the aluminium can shortage, an issue which existed before the pandemic but has only been worsened by Coronavirus.
Things must always get worse before they get better and, currently, things are indeed getting worse: a 400-year-old brewery that survived the Spanish Flu, two cholera outbreaks, and the Plague will soon close its doors, truly hitting home the severity of the times in which we live. However, we live in hope that better is just around the corner.
It’s time to get behind a pandemic trend that we all hope will continue: supporting small businesses, especially in their hour of need.