Theakston brews for a new generation

THESE are peculiar times for exporters. Britain voted to leave the European Union over two months ago, but a new trading arrangement with the world's biggest economic bloc still seems light years away.
Executive director Simon Theakston at the brewery in Masham, North Yorkshire.Executive director Simon Theakston at the brewery in Masham, North Yorkshire.
Executive director Simon Theakston at the brewery in Masham, North Yorkshire.

When one does come it may well come with some knotty strings attached, and in the meantime, the prevailing uncertainty is making planning tricky for many export-minded companies.

And yet Simon Theakston is not worried. And as executive director of one of the UK’s best-loved independent brewers he knows a thing or two about exporting.

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His family’s company, T&R Theakston Ltd of Masham in North Yorkshire, has been selling its beers – most notably its iconic Old Peculier – overseas for decades and now exports to 20 countries on six continents, including Brazil, Russia and China.

“The world has not changed that much since before the vote, apart from the fact that we are not certain about the future. Naturally, people are slightly cautious, but the fundamentals are still the same,” he says.

“We are brilliant in Britain at being creative; we’ve got some fantastic, inventive, creative, talented people. Our nature is such that when we’re pushed up against the wall we come out fighting, and we’ve proved countless times in history that we can deal with whatever is thrown at us and come back and succeed.

“I’ve absolutely no doubt at all that once people have settled down and realised the world hasn’t ended and that the prospects for the long-term future of Britain will pick up and be just as they were before – in fact, even better – because I think we’re at our best when we’re pushed to our mettle.

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“Here we are, we’ve struck out, away from Europe, but we’re not going to stop trading with Europe. Europe’s not going to move physically; we’re all going to go on holiday there. I’m still going to sell my beer to European customers. I think we should just crack on, personally.”

But might that not be more easily said than done, given that a new arrangement with the EU may involve tariffs?

“The reality is that it’s the marketplace that demands our product,” he says. “Our Italian importers will not worry whether we’re in Europe or not in Europe, as to whether they’ll buy our product. Our American customers are the same. To them and to us it’s a matter of agreeing commercial terms, coming to an accommodation on exchange rates, which we do – we flex, both of us – and making sure there’s something in it for both of us.

“The exchange rate is critical, and obviously we right now with the exchange rate as it is, there is a good chance we’ll see a lot more export activity.

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“But, that said, once you have a stable exchange rate – broadly, by and large – [if there are] any fluctuations from one year to the next, the importer and the producer resolve those differences between them.”

If Mr Theakston appears unflappable that probably has a lot to do with his company’s history.

Ask him about the firm’s five-year plan and he says they don’t really think in terms of years; rather, he says, “it’s more of a generational thing”.

He and brothers Nick, Tim and Edward represent the fifth generation of the brewing dynasty that began when their great-great-grandfather started brewing in 1827. The company occupies the same gritstone buildings it did back then, with one or two mostly 19th-century additions, and they still even employ a cooper – and apprentice – to make the oak casks for Old Peculier.

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Yet while things may appear to run by gold-chained pocket watch at the family firm, that’s not to say they can’t move nimbly when needs be.

A few years ago, for example, a character in US TV crime series NCIS: Los Angeles was shown tapping a cask of beer and telling her team of detectives that it was “Theakstons Christmas Ale, flown all the way from Yorkshire, England, and brewed as it was in Charles Dickens’ time”.

It was pure Hollywood fiction and came as rather bizarre news – but wonderful PR – to Simon Theakston. Asked by a regional TV reporter if Theakston’s brewed a Christmas ale, he replied: “No, but we do now!”. They’ve been brewing their 4.7ABV, spiced Christmas Ale every winter since – and exporting it to the States.

More recently, the company has moved with the times in lively fashion, adding three new craft keg ales to its portfolio, including Peculier IPA, which has a strongly hopped taste and comes from chilled pumps. If that seems more Washington State than Wensleydale, it’s because it’s a very conscious response to the newly vibrant craft beer market, which has been enlivened by America’s discovery of life beyond lager.

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According to Camra, the value of the cask ale market is £1.8bn, a 29 per cent increase from £1.4bn in 2010; by 2020 it is expected to be worth £2.3bn.

“We have to owe it to the Americans, who in the 1990s suddenly freed up their marketplace to encourage all sorts of brewing, which in turn has spurred a huge amount of international interest in what we call ‘craft brewing’ – basically traditional, top-fermenting brewing,” says Mr Theakston.

“As a consequence of this the styles and the variety of flavours and ingredients have broadened hugely. And that plays straight into our hands, because we love nothing more than brewing, and if our consumers want us to try and experiment with new styles then we’re delighted to do that.”

He insists, though, that the resurgence of ale in recent years is no flash in the pan.

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“I don’t think ‘fashion’ is the right way to describe it,” he says. “It’s almost an enlightenment, because if you go back into history, the variety and choice was much more limited, and in the absence of any choice consumers just were happy with what they could get.

“But because consumers are demanding wider varieties, we brewers are producing wider varieties, and so the whole thing is snowballing.

“You have your traditional core cask base – and those customers are really important to us; we’ll always have them as our primary focus – but there’s a whole new raft of people drinking craft keg ale, and these are consumers that recognise the social and nutritional values of beer, which is a low-alcohol alternative to other alcoholic drinks. And it’s wonderful to see.

“There’s no reason at all why this interest in real ale, and traditional ale, won’t continue for the foreseeable future.

“The portents are much better for the future of beer as we know it today than they have been for a number of generations.”