Brewery upgrade for Skinner's

l Skinner's team salute their success outside the Truro brewery

February 20, 2006: In the wake of its most successful year since launching in 1997, Skinner's brewery is on course for further growth with a doubling of its capacity over the next three years.

All the brewing equipment at the Truro-based brewery will be upgraded at a cost of £200,000 - the company’s biggest-ever single investment programme, apart from the relocation to its present Newham premises in 2003.

Its current capacity is 9,000 gallons of beer a week - which was reached throughout the main July-August season of a record 2005, when 2.5m pints were sold.

The company has steadily increased its workforce to its present level of 24, with two additions in 2005, and expects to recruit at least two more with the capacity upgrade.

As well as record sales, Skinners also enjoyed its best-ever year at beer festivals in 2005, when other highlights included the opening of a visitor centre at the brewery and the highly successful launch of the first Cornish lager for 15 years.

“We have increased our sales by something like 50 per cent over the last three or four years,” said managing director Steve Skinner. “But we are still working with all our original tanks, fermenters and main brewing equipment, so the upgrade has become essential if we are to realise our full potential with continued expansion.

“We have no plans to move to a larger base - we are very keen to stay in Truro - but we may well be looking at additional storage capacity at other locations.”

He added: “Our Betty Stogs bitter (4%) in particular has achieved amazing sales and was officially recognised as one of the top six best bitters in the country at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia.

“One of the main reasons for our success is our policy of always buying the very best quality materials, such as our Cornish barley. Also, we personally visit Hereford and Slovenia to choose our hops.

“The results speak volumes for the expertise of our brewing team and the popularity of our recipes, which can be described as very much modern style. We like to think ourselves as more innovative than some of the larger breweries. The use of American hops with English hops is quite common now, but it was very much a first when we began doing it.”

Skinners crowned a great 2005 when it swept the board in spectacular style at the 2005 Falmouth Beer Festival. It beat off all-comers, including some of the national giants, to win the top three places and end up supreme champion - a feat possibly without precedent at a British festival. At the same festival, Betty Stogs was crowned Cornish supreme champion.