Manchester Brewing Co closes due to rising costs

Manchester Brewing Co is the latest small brewery to announce its closure due to rising costs.

The company, which was founded in a railway arch in Ardwick in 2016, confirmed on social media on 3 January that it was shutting down after seven years.

"As I load the sign in to the back of the van to take to the tip, I guess this presents the most opportune moment to confirm that Manchester Brewing Company has ceased to be," a team member wrote on Twitter.

"Financial pressures from debts incurred during lockdown, coupled with the effect of the cost of living crisis on trade, plus the spiralling costs of pretty much everything mean that, as a business, we can no longer function."

They added: "Keep supporting the little guys."

The company joins a growing list of smaller brewers which have closed their doors over the past year in the face of debts and spiralling costs. Another Manchester brewer, Beatnikz Republic Brewing Co, ceased trading last April leaving administrators to dispose of around 300 barrels of beer and hundreds of cans of craft ale.

Somerset-based Wild Beer Co entered administration in December after 10 years of trading, blaming "adverse trading conditions" including inflation, the fallout from the pandemic and rising interest rates.

Several smaller sites owned by larger brewing giants also stopped production last year.

Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company shut down Cumbria's historic Jennings Brewery, which dated back to 1828, while Heineken said it would close the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh after 153 years after a decline in production.

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