Shock as Hawkshead Brewery announce sudden closure of Staveley Beer Hall

Hawkshead Brewery has announced they’ve closed down their site at Staveley with immediate effect, moving production to Flookburgh.

Bosses at parent company Halewood Artisanal Spirits say it’s no longer financially viable to keep the site in the South Lakekand village open.

The doors closed to the Beer Hall at Staveley Mill Yard at the end of trading on Monday.

Four full time posts are being made redundant, while other affected staff are being offered the opportunity to relocate to the Flookburgh site, 20 miles away.

In a statement, the company said: ‘’Hawkshead is expanding our award winning beer brands into national grocery with recent wins for Windermere Pale Ale.

‘’In order to be competitive on price we need to utilise our larger “state of the art” Krones Beer Line at our owned production site in Flookburgh, Cumbria.

‘’The old small Brewery pub site at Staveley is leased and is not sustainable from an energy and efficiency point of view with manually operated equipment which will be unable to cope with the increased volumes.

‘’In addition, we have renewed and increased the size of our delivery fleet of vehicles for our cask and keg business to allow a greater service outside of the Cumbria area.

‘’The Brewery staff are being offered the possibility to relocate to the larger site which is 20 miles away which will also produce Crabbies Ginger Beer and Bankhall British whisky.

‘’The Staveley Hawkshead Bar is also leased and is no longer profitable to operate due to the landlord applying new parking charges which has deterred customers, this will result in four permanent full time redundancies.

‘’Halewood intends to invest in Hawkshead Beer to be available on Keg in our own Distillery Bars in Liverpool, London and Bristol.

‘’All the core Hawkshead Beers will continued to be produced from Cumbria and we expect a smooth transition over to the Flookburgh site that has produced Hawkshead beers in the past.

‘’Sadly The Beer Hall will be closing. From all the team at Hawkshead Brewery we would like to thank everyone who has passed through our doors and shared in the amazing memories over the years. We are so grateful for all the support and a special thank you our locals.’’

South Lakes MP, Tim Farron, slammed the decision to close, saying: ‘’ I'm appalled at Halewood's poor treatment of staff, for betraying the heritage of the brand and the brewery, and deserting the community that has underpinned their success for two decades.

‘’On the positive side, the premises they've abandoned are a fantastic opportunity for a local business to move into to employ local people and thrive.’’

The brewery’s owners, Halewood Artisanal Spirits, said it was consolidating its beer and spirits production in Cumbria.

It said: “In order to be competitive on price we need to utilise our larger state of the art Krones Beer Line at our owned production site in Flookburgh.

“The old small brewery pub site at Staveley is leased and is not sustainable from an energy and efficiency point of view with manually operated equipment which will be unable to cope with the increased volumes.”

Hawkshead Brewery celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022.

In 2011, the brewery was visited by King Charles, when he was the Prince of Wales.