Lerwick Brewery signs deal to increase production of 60° North and Skipper's Ticket
Lerwick Brewery, Shetland’s newest craft brewery, has signed a strategic deal with Cairngorm
Brewery in Aviemore, which will allow the Lerwick Brewery team to drastically increase production
of its flagship products 60° North and Skipper’s Ticket.
Cairngorm Bottling Hall
John Mercer, Marketing Manager and Co-Founder, Lerwick Brewery, says: “So far, the only drawback of our beers’ popularity has been that demand is already exceeding the capacity of our in-house bottling plant. We have great local demand and growing interest from distributors in Scotland and across England. We can already see that our own bottling plant is one of the key limiting factors to how much beer we can produce.
“Our strategic deal with Cairngorm Brewery sees us using their contract bottling service – effectively allowing us to increase by over 700% the amount of beer we can bottle in an hour. All our beer will be developed and made on Shetland – but this deal enables us to produce much more, get it packaged and send it to retailers across the UK at a much faster rate than we could do
previously. We will continue to use our own bottling plant alongside Cairngorm’s facility, to ensure we continue to meet demand as fast as we can.”
Lerwick Brewery will send consignments of several 1,000 litre iso-bulk containers of 60° North and
Skipper’s Ticket to Cairngorm Brewery, who will bottle it into 330ml bottles, complete with product
labels. The Cairngorm plant operates at high volume, with capacity for approximately 20,000
bottles a day (compared to Lerwick Brewery’s in-house 2,000 bottles per day) and a 2,500 bottle
per hour bottling rate (compared to Lerwick Brewery’s 350 per hour).
Lerwick Brewerys Flagship 60 deg and Skippers
Graham Mercer, Distribution Manager and Co-Founder, Lerwick Brewery, says: “This agreement with Cairngorm Brewery is Brewery is a key development for us. Not only does it allow us to forge ahead and meet demand for the products, it also gives us a strategic partner with a wealth of experience. We have already learned some helpful hints that we can use to make our production
techniques in our own brewery more efficient. That, coupled with an inviting gift shop and entertaining and insightful brewery tours, make Cairngorm an example of what we would like to become.”
Sam Faircliff, Managing Director, Cairngorm Brewery, adds: “We are delighted to be working with Lerwick Brewery in this way. Meeting demand for products as quickly and efficiently as possible is
a really key part of making a successful beer business. We are pleased to be adding to Lerwick
Brewery’s own bottling capacity, allowing the team to focus on upping production in Shetland and
making more great product.”
Demand for 60° North and Skipper’s Ticket continues to grow. Recently-signed deals with
Williamsons Foodservice and Imports Scotland sees both brands becoming generally available
across the North of Scotland, and also within specially-selected retailers around the rest of Scotland
and England. This, combined with existing arrangements with Shetland distributors Hughson
Brothers and JW Gray & Co, sees 60° North and Skipper’s Ticket’s reach growing throughout the UK.
