ARRAN Brewery is embarking on a "Gypsy strategy" that will see it transplant production overseas to quench demand for its brands around the world.
The new approach comes after the Scottish Government refused the business a £1 million grant to help expand its brewery on Arran.
The project, which would also have seen the addition of a new bottling line at the company's Rosebank Distillery in Falkirk, had been scheduled to bring 10 new jobs to the island and 76 to Scotland in total.
Managing director Gerald Michaluk said expanding production on Arran was not viable without grant aid because of the high cost of shipping beer from the island and the higher duty bill the business will incur as soon as annual production exceeds 5000 hectolitres – and output is already close to that threshold.
Now Mr Michaluk is looking to make Arran's beers abroad as an alternative way to expand production and achieve global growth.
The idea is to dispatch trained brewers from Arran to brew its beers, which include the Blonde, Dark and Sunset brands, in cities like New York, Beijing and Calcutta, and sell market the products via partner breweries' distribution networks.
Mr Michaluk has already visited a brewery in Zaragoza, Spain, which he said operates equipment similar to Arran's.
The project may also bring a Scottish jobs boost, as the com-pany will recruit brewers and marketing staff to aid its inter-national development.
Mr Michaluk said the strategy is environmentally sound and cost effective because it removes the need to ship large volumes of beer around the world.
However, he said it will force the company to "sacrifice" the provenance of its products.
Mr Michaluk added: "We will use a process called reverse osmosis to take the minerals out of their water and then replace them with the natural minerals that are in our water, and use the same yeast.
"But you never get exactly the same [taste]. It's like Guinness.
"Guinness used to make beer all round the world and of course everyone use to say it never quite tasted as good as it did in Ireland. I think we will be in exactly the same position. Arran Blonde will always taste better on Arran."
Mr Michaluk said the company would continue to brew on Arran for the Scottish market.
He pointed out it would not be the first brewer to make its brands elsewhere in the world, but emphasised it would not disguise the fact.
He said: "A lot of the big brewers use this [model] all the time, they will recreate [a recipe]. What we're try to do is recreate a craft beer, but we're going to be very up front about it. We're telling everybody what we're doing."
Asked whether the new strategy was a negotiating stance designed to persuade the Government to re-think the grant decision, Mr Michaluk added: "Our existing plan would have been better for the Scottish economy.
"It would create more jobs, it would be export income earned, it would have been more money going to the Chancellor and we would have been subsidising Calmac Ferries.
"It would be much more beneficial for the Scottish Government [for us] to brew the beer here and export it. But I can't do that because of the way the duty lies and the economics of working on the island."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article