ARRAN Brewery has confirmed it is pulling out of its plans for a bottling facility at its upcoming sake brewery in Dreghorn after the premises was repeatedly targeted by vandals.
Following a board meeting, managing director Gerald Michaluk said it was still possible for sake to be made on the North Ayrshire site, but the firm was immediately seeking an alternative site for its long-planned bottling line.
Mr Michaluk, who spent a couple of nights sleeping at the site against police advice in a bid to identify the vandals, said the Dreghorn facility remained ideal for the sake brewery.
“We can’t keep the site secure. It’s been a big problem for us, but we like the area. We’ve had interest from parties wanting to buy the site so we’re torn between that and keeping it. But only for brewing sake and research and development, the board have said the bottling hall is definitely not going there.”
Mr Michaluk explained that €100m of bottling equipment is due to arrive from Italy later this month and so in the interim Arran has agreed a deal to share bottling facilities with another site in Glasgow.
The company has transferred its made-wine licence, which it needs to make sake, to its Loch Earn site and has moved equipment there too. One element not making the move north however is the sake brewer, who has returned to Japan after the long series of delays. Nevertheless, Mr Michaluk is confident that the 23,000 bottles currently in storage will be filled with Scottish sake soon – though he wouldn’t be drawn on a date.
Mr Michaluk said the second round of funding was looking to raise £1.6m, which would be used to further expand the growing business.
For the year ending August 2015, Arran Brewery had sales of £950,000, up 37 per cent and make a recognised gain overall for the year of £628,000 after a trading loss of £69,000.
Mr Michaluk said the company was also set to commence production at the Devils Dyke Brewery in Cambridgeshire.
Acquired last year, Devil’s Dyke will produce up to 50 different beers a year and act as a research and development centre for new beers. However this too has now been without its problems.
Arran was granted a brewing licence for the site in April, just before a fire in the pub destroyed electrical cables. “The brewery is there, it’s raring to go but the powerline has not been restored,” said Mr Michaluk. “As soon as the pub reopens, we’ll get to work.”
Mr Michaluk also revealed Arran was seeking expansion through acquisition and recently tried to buy the assets of Loch Ness Brewery from its liquidator.
“It would be great if a brewery approached us before calling in a liquidator or if they are in need of a strategic partnership because once a liquidator is appointed, a brand that may have taken years to establish, can suffer and most of its value vanishes overnight.”
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