Community owned brewery secures free-of-tie Enterprise lease

A Cumbrian co-operative owned micro-brewery which was purchased by locals to save it from closure, has opened its first pub under a free-of-tie Enterprise Inns lease.

The Hesket Newmarket Brewery has taken on the Shepherds Inn at Melmerby after the pub had been closed for six months. It has reached an agreement with the pubco that it will be able to sell its own beers. The lease was offered at nil premium.

It is believed the deal is the first time a national pub chain has reached such a deal with a co-operative brewery.

Andy Webster, brewery manager said the deal represented an innovative way forward for rural pubs in need of a new business model to survive.

"For us it is another secure outlet for our ales. In these times it just guarantees another outlet for our beers and it is our first independent showcase for them. It has always been a plan of the brewery for a long time to find somewhere and this ticked all the boxes if we could get the right deal," he said.

The pub will be officially re-opened tomorrow (June 17) by mountaineering celebrity Sir Chris Bonington.

The Hesket Newmarket Brewery was set up in 1988 but became a community owned co-operative in 1999 to ensure its survival when the previous owner retired. Around 70 locals bought shares in the business, with dividends often being paid in the form of cask ale. There are now 94 shareholders.

The brewery sits behind and supplied beers to the Old Crown pub, which is also a community co-operative owned business.