NOAH Beers, the company which trades as the WEST beer hall and microbrewery on Glasgow Green, has unveiled plans to invest £4 million in a new brewery in the same building as its current facility.
Owner Petra Wetzel revealed the kit for the brewery, which will occupy a 15,000 square foot site in the former Templeton's Carpet Factory, is currently being assembled in Germany.
The new facility, which will complement its existing microbrewery at the building, is scheduled to be up and running by April or May, funded by a mix of retained profits, external investment, some bank support and the activation of a Scottish Government Food Processing Marketing and Co-operation grant.
Ms Wetzel turned to the project after plans to develop a brewery in a former cooperage in Port Dundas in the north of the city were blocked by Scottish Water.
Having invested £200,000 on professional fees, Ms Wetzel conceded she had been demoralised after being forced to walk away from that project.
However, she said the disappointment has been outweighed by the chance to invest in West's "spiritual home" in the city's east end.
Speaking as new accounts show Noah Beers made a retained profit of £110,814 for the year ended December 31, Ms Wetzel said: "What we would have done up at the cooperage we are just doing on a slightly smaller scale at Templeton, so we are keeping everything under the same roof.
"And actually, maybe in hindsight, that is a much more manageable thing for us to do, because we are then keeping the same team in the same place, rather than divvying it up between beer hall and brewery."
Ms Wetzel revealed the company has also just secured planning permission and a building warrant to develop a restaurant in one of the two adjacent units which formerly traded as the Halt Bar in Glasgow's west end.
West, which has been running a pop up bar in the other unit since July, plans to have completed a staged refurbishment of both the restaurant and the bar by spring 2015, when the whole premises will be launched as West on the Corner.
Ms Wetzel said: "I'm really excited because I used to live on Woodlands Road as a student. That's my old haunt.
"I always said West should have a presence in the west end just to remind people that the big brewery is on Glasgow Green."
The company, meanwhile, has identified a site in Edinburgh as it looks to expand into the east of the country for the first time. It is currently examining the feasibility of the site, where it will look to combine a bar, restaurant and microbrewery.
During its last financial year, Noah Beers doubled turnover and saw profits rise even higher, though Ms Wetzel declined to give specific figures.
The company distributes its German style beers, including St Mungo and West 4 to venues including Gleneagles, Turnberry and Glasgow's Blythswood Square Hotel, but Ms Wetzel noted that its own venue remained the biggest outlet for its beers.
She said: "We are now running a business which has got several strands to it. The beer hall on Glasgow Green is doing really well and we are really happy with its performance. It is still the powerhouse of our business."
West, which launched Glasgow Pale Ale, a "Cologne style beer" over the period, is currently hosting its own Oktoberfest on Glasgow Green.
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