Greene King has shrugged off criticism it received at the Great British Beer Festival following its decision to close the Ridley's brewery.
At the awards ceremony for the Champion Beer of Britain on Tuesday, beer writer Roger Protz called on people to actively voice their opposition to the closure by visiting the Greene King stand and by signing the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) petition calling for a reversal of the decision. Greene King purchased Ridley's for £45.6m in July.
However, a spokeswoman for Greene King said: "We are members of CAMRA and we know they support real ale and they oppose brewery closures. We actually have more in common with them than differences. We both want to grow the cask ale category and we don't like seeing breweries close.
"Ridley's was trying to sell the business as a going concern but couldn't find anyone. And since we bought Ridley's we have not had a queue of people coming to us saying we can make this business viable," she added.
Steve Magnall, Greene King brewing company operations director, said: "What encourages us is the amount of people that came to our stand and said to us that they recognised how much we have done for real ale. We are committed to investing in the Ridley's pub estate and you will still see Ridley's signage on their pubs. Plus we have recruited Ridley's staff, such as members of their sales service team."
Greene King has confirmed it will brew four Ridley's beers: Old Bob, Tolly Original, Prospect and Rumpus, and is considering a fifth. They will be available on a thirteen week rotation in Ridley's pubs throughout the year.
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