West Wales brewing entrepreneur Simon Buckley has joined the Steering Committee of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.
The group represents the views of the brewing and pub industry and lobbies MPs in Westminster on behalf of the industry.
The group is made up of brewers of all sizes and includes the major pub groups.
Mr Buckley, chief executive of the Evan-Evans brewery group in Llandeilo, said:
“It is a great honour to be invited to join this unique group and to be able to have the opportunity to help develop drinks industry strategy and to get the message to our elected representatives.
“There has never been a more important time for us to work as ‘one’ within the industry, and to correct many of the misrepresentations about what we do and the associated problems that go with an industry that is over-taxed and being driven out of business.
“We are a caring group of employers who employ many tens of thousands in the UK and we must not forget that the Great British Brewing Industry is one of the most important in the world. It is important that our voice is heard at the highest levels of government.
“I am probably the smallest brewer in the group but am delighted to sit alongside some of the greatest names in brewing and to be able to put the small brewer’s point of view.”
The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group also lobbies regional assemblies and the European Parliament and works with major drinks groups to improve the understanding of the needs of the industry.
- Mr Buckley, 54, is a sixth generation member of the longest-surviving brewing dynasty in Wales.
- The Buckley family have brewed in Wales since 1767.
- Evan-Evans has a reputation for brewing the highest quality cask-conditioned beers.
- Evan-Evans is Wales’s largest specialist brewer of cask ale.
- The company started brewing in 2004 to produce specialist cask ales for the Welsh and national guest ale market.
The brewing heritage of the Buckley family stretches back to the early 19th century after the Rev James Buckley married the eldest daughter of Henry Child who had founded Childs Brewery in Llanelli. It was set up to slake the thirst of the town’s tinworkers, who were rapidly increasing in numbers.
Simon Buckley was the last Buckley to brew at Llanelli before moving to London in 1984.
Buckleys Brewery had the distinction of being the only Welsh brewer to hold a royal warrant. In 1991 it became Crown Buckley when it was taken over by a subsidiary of Guinness. It was sold to Brains in 1997 and the Llanelli brewery closed a year later.
Evan-Evans was founded in Llandeilo in 2003 and began brewing in 2004.
It is named after William Evan-Evans who married into the family four generations ago
For more information visit http://www.evanevansbrewery.com/
