Asahi confirmed to The Morning Advertiser it is set to close the Greenwich site and move all production to Fuller’s Griffin Brewery in Chiswick.
CAMRA’s real ale, cider and perry campaigns director Gillian Hough said: “Having first moved production of Dark Star from Sussex to the Meantime brewery in Greenwich, it’s a further blow for British brewing to hear that Asahi will now move production of both Dark Star and Meantime to a single site in Chiswick.
“Multinationals constantly seek out the authenticity of smaller brands, whose integrity is tied to their founding, their place of production, and the love and care that comes from a team of skilled brewers.
“Buying up and consolidating these brands in the name of profit not only strips communities of their brewing heritage and creates redundancies for the brewers themselves, it often fundamentally destroys what made that beer special in the first place and reduces consumer choice to a meaningless selection between products owned by a single brand.”
Real choice
Hough continued: “CAMRA believes consumers deserve real choice at the bar and that small independent breweries should be able to retain their unique character.
“We condemn Asahi’s choice to further consolidate its brands in the strongest possible terms, as well as their decision to announce this while all eyes are on the Spring Budget announcement.
“With so much at stake for brewers across the UK, Westminster will rightly be where much of the trade’s focus lies today.”
Asahi UK explained its proposal to bring production of all its local beer brands together under one brewing operation at the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick.
Under the proposal, all Meantime and Dark Star products will be brewed, packaged and distributed from the site in west London, alongside the existing production of the complete Fuller’s beer portfolio.
Mutually beneficial
The brewer said: “The addition of Meantime and Dark Star to the site will be mutually beneficial to both the Chiswick site and all the brands produced there.
“As well as leveraging extensive in-house brewing expertise and capabilities, across an expansive range of beer styles, the proposed move helps support a commitment to the growth potential of Asahi’s full UK beer brand portfolio – by creating more efficient, sustainable operations, with a solid foundation for future innovation and investment.”
Asahi further committed to drive and support the success of the brands and pledged “to deliver the great standards consumers expect and [they] will retain their own unique brand identities, separate to the Fuller’s range currently produced on-site in Chiswick”.
As part of the proposal, the intention is for Meantime to also retain a footprint in its original home of Greenwich. Plans are under way for the creation of a new stand-alone consumer retail experience, including a continuation of brewing, where the brand was established.
Asahi said: “We are committed to treating all colleagues impacted by this proposal with compassion and respect, and believe this is the best course of action for supporting the success of our brands and our sites – focusing and leveraging the extensive expertise and capabilities within our local UK brewing business.”
