Gold Medal winning brewer Evan-Evans has chalked up record sales for the start of 2010.
The West Wales brewer, based in Llandeilo, has seen sales up nearly 60% on the same period last year, despite many pubs seeing a significant drop in trade as a result of bad weather and the recession.
Chief Executive Simon Buckley said: “We have spent the last five years building a portfolio of high quality cask conditioned beers that are well respected and anticipated by the real ale drinkers of Wales.
“We are now brewing at peak summer levels, with ever increasing demand coming from all over the UK. West Wales is now a major trading area for us, and the company is set to fill the void created by the abandonment of West Wales by Heineken Wales, who bought the former SA Brains free trade business.
“Our award-winning Cwrw brand is now achieving sales growth of 20% per month year on year, and our seasonal beers are achieving acclaim all over the country. So much so, that the brewery is now running at near capacity.
“There is little doubt that the small brewing sector is seeing a renaissance, but the market is very fragile, and I believe that were it not for the fact that the larger brewers cannot produce what the consumer is looking for, the market would, realistically, be in decline.
“The one reassuring factor is that the consumer will not sacrifice quality or heritage. Consumers and tourists want local beers brewed in Wales, that are competitively priced, and of the very highest quality.
“There are too many small brewers in Wales, many breweries being built as part of an agricultural diversification programme, where Welsh Assembly funds are invested in projects where the potential brewer has no experience and has no benchmark or quality threshold.
“The consumer wants well-made beers, that have the hallmarks of quality about them, and not poorly-constructed beers that have tonsil cleansing bitterness, and a passing wish to quality control.
“I believe that the very best will survive, but the long term future for our over-taxed, over-bureaucratised industry is in the hands of the government and the budget.
“Our national treasure, the Great British pub, is now under threat from so many different directions that if we are not careful we will lose once and for all the very thing that so many tourists come to see and enjoy.
“Our great British pub is the envy of the World . Let’s see the government support the brewing sector like they have supported the banks, and build on the renaissance of Welsh-brewed real ale.”
