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Scotland’s MSPs may soon be quaffing bottles of Arran ale. That could be one of the outcomes of a meeting at Arran Brewery last week between Kenneth Gibson MSP and brewery Distribution Manager Elisabeth Roberts.
Mr Gibson was responding to a request from the company for advice and assistance as to how the brewery could consolidate on its recent relaunch.
The company was established at Cladach eight years ago and became famous for its Arran Blonde, Arran Dark, Arran Sunset and Arran Milestone beers.
But administrators were called in at the beginning of May after problems with the company cash flow caused operational difficulties. The business was taken over in June by Marketing Management Services Ltd who succeeded in getting the brewery producing beer again.
Elisabeth’s role in the new company is as distribution manager and shop manager.
Kenneth Gibson said: ‘I am keen to find out how I can assist the company and what constraints are holding it back. Perhaps we could secure grants to help growth.
‘As a member of a new parliamentary cross-party group looking into ways to improve the range and variety of beers in Scotland I would be trying to identify new markets for Arran beers. There are about 40 breweries in Scotland and all members of the group have brewery interests in their constituencies.’
Elisabeth said: ‘We could easily double production which would secure jobs and even create positions for up to two new sales people. One of our biggest outlays is in beer duty. We can pay up to £15,000 a month in duty. For a young new company like this, the impact on cash flow can be devastating.’
Mr Gibson agreed and said: ‘Because of fixed costs you will need to increase the volume of beer which would need more bottling plant.’ He promised to look into the possibilities of grant funding from Argyll and the Islands Enterprise and better ways of marketing.
Mr Gibson left with a couple of bottles of the Arran Blonde and Arran Milestone to see if it could be stocked in the bar at the Scottish Parliament.
The following day he contacted the Banner to say that the parliamentary bar manager was going to sample the Arran ale and he was hopeful that it could soon be available as a tipple for all MSPs.
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