Camden Town to increase capacity at brewery
Revealing that he was optimistic about the future of the brewing business, famous for its Hells Lager, Cuppaidge outlined how it will be celebrating reaching a decade old.
He said: “We are 10 years old next year, it sounds very old but we still feel very young. Next year we will have a full season of innovation in Hells, so Blooming Hells, which we have never released before, will come out in the spring.
“A whole category of seasonal beers with Hells will include Strawberry Hells Forever, Harvest Hells, then Hibernation.
“We've also got a massive investment going on in both our breweries, so we are increasing our capacity and technique in Enfield and Camden, in north London, creating more investment into Camden to make beer even better.
“We've now got the whole street of railway arches in Camden, and we are converting two more into a restaurant and brewing bar. Our brewery hospitality offer is going to be one of the best in the country, if not the best in London, when it comes to people eating and drinking in a brewery.”
Last month (October) the brewery introduced a new brew and its first IPA – Off Menu IPA – but Cuppaidge said there are no plans to release more of that style.
'Playing around the brewhouse'
He added: “IPA is an amazing style within beer. We are and will always be focused on Hells, but we have been playing around the brewhouse.
“We started making this beer about 18 months to two years ago and it developed from there. It had been available in our taproom for some time under a disguised name, then we decided it was too good to keep secret.
“We are pretty strict on what we like to look after and are continually innovating Hells. There are no plans to deviate from that.
“We are very happy with [Off Menu] and there are no plans to make a different one, but we'll see how this one pans out.
“Hells is still 80% of our overall business and it is still in 52% growth year on year, and has been for the past 10 years.”
Cuppaidge also highlighted the importance of having a bar within the brewery for customers to immerse themselves into beer even more.
He said: “We are not going to open breweries all over the country and put bars beside them. We are an on-trade specialist. We have nearly 5,500 customers pouring Camden in their bars, restaurants and pubs all over the country.
“We aren’t about to roll out a bar model because we love working with bars but, there is more opportunity for people to open brewery bars.”
Big trends
Looking at the beer category as a whole, Cuppaidge predicted two big, ongoing trends will continue: “Accessibility and sustainability."
He went on: "As a brewing company, we are accessible to all walks of life from male, female, 18 to 80 years old.
“We really cover a broad section of people and make our beer styles through flavour, ABV and understanding accessibility.
“If you’re not thinking about sustainability as a brewing company, then you’re wide of the mark. It’s a massive cause within our company.”
Meanwhile, Camden has also announced the appointment of Adam Keary as the brewery’s managing director, following a promotion from sales director.
With Cuppaidge, Keary has overseen the company’s 216% sales growth over the past three years and aims to being a wealth of experience, internal knowledge and accomplishments to his new role, which include doubling the size of the brewery’s sales team and showing success in the off-trade.
