Our local shuttered brewery tells the story of Labour's assault on small businesses

Telegraph

02-05-2025

With the sunlight streaming into his office, Jonathan Price is doing his best to look cheerful. It's almost 20 years since he purchased Exmoor Ale, a brewery that sat at the peak of the little town of Wiveliscombe in west Somerset, just a few rolling hills away from our home. On top of the filing cabinets and on shelves are the results of his endeavours, bottles of Gold, Stag, Beast and, my favourite, original Exmoor ale, a gloriously smooth session beer.
But today the steady wheel of the brewing cycle, the mashing, boiling, cooling and fermenting, is grinding to a halt.
'We've stopped brewing,' he tells me. 'The last beer is coming out of the tanks now and going into the casks.'
The brewery is closing and the shutters will go up on an operation that has been in Wiveliscombe since 1979. Exmoor Ale is one of the gems of our local town, a brewing firm that hones the waters off the wilds of the moorlands of west Somerset and north Devon.
I fell in love with this small town, known locally as Wivey, when we moved here some four years ago as, in spite of its small size, it held its own against the larger towns and cities of the South West maintaining a butcher's, a good pub, a restaurant, small hotel, a hardware store, a deli, a barber shop and a gun room.
But many of these small businesses have struggled, fighting to stay afloat in the wake of Covid, social change and the latest threat, a Labour Government.
The latter, specifically, raising the rate of employer National Insurance contributions, which came into effect some four weeks ago, from 13.8 to 15 per cent.
Price sent a message on Wednesday this week to his customers. 'Sadly, like many breweries, we have faced some challenging times recently due to the knock-on effects of Covid-19, inflation, market changes and most recently, tax increases. This has meant we need to restructure and close the brewery.'
I ask him about those tax increases. 'It's the final straw,' he replies.
And indeed it's been the final straw for many other British breweries this year who similarly have had to give employees their P45s and let their vast brewing vats run dry.
Recent figures from the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) show that there were 1,715 independent breweries at the start of 2025, compared with 1,815 in January 2024.
And, reports SIBA, the drop in overall brewery numbers over the last 12 months is much higher than in recent years. According to SIBA's chief executive Andy Slee, 'The issue for small independent breweries is lack of access to market and rising costs, making it incredibly difficult to remain profitable. Indie brewers can't sell into enough of their local pubs and make enough of a profit to remain viable.'
It doesn't help, of course, that their customers are disappearing as pubs continue to close at an average rate of more than 34 each month. It's indicative of the crisis in the hospitality industry. Businesses are in peril. Many – restaurants, cafes and pubs – are still paying off debts from Covid, managing an ongoing staffing crisis and grappling with surging costs.
And hospitality chiefs have been begging for help. Yet what was Labour's answer to their cries, their solution to assist the UK's third largest employer, responsible for the jobs of some three million people?
In last year's autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves upped employer NICs and increased the national living wage.
As trade body Hospitality UK's boss Kate Nicholls put it, the policies, 'left hospitality owners with a sleepless night as they came to terms with the enormous cost they will have to bear from April onwards.' She added: 'The new cost of employing core members of staff is eye-watering – an increase of at least £2,500 [which] is far, far beyond anyone's worst case scenario.'
The Government also landed £154 million of extra annual costs on brewers with what's called EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility), basically additional packaging charges. This adds 5p per bottle, another little stinger for struggling pubs whose closure, The British Beer and Pub Association points out, 'last year equated to more than 4,500 job losses'.
Thus Labour's policies are now reaping what they sowed. Small businesses such as Exmoor Ale must sip the last drops of their kegs and lock the doors.
The Socialist robots spew out their heads-in-the-sands mantras: ' fixing foundations … championing Britain as the best place to grow a business… going further and faster to tackle barriers to investment.'
Yet their actual policies, as you would expect from Marxist huggers, swell the public sector and deter entrepreneurs.
'Existing and looming eye-watering business rates and taxes undermines growth and investment which hurts local jobs, communities, and the wider economy,' James Hawkins of the Beer and Pub Association tells me. Starmer, Reeves and Co can spout their disingenuous catchphrases but what they're actually doing is putting a sign above Britain that reads, 'Closing down soon'.
As Jonathan Price chats in his office, behind him is a map of Britain with pins indicating the locations of his many customers. He assures me that all is not lost. 'We're going to work with a brewer, Hog's Back, in Surrey. It's an innovative solution to keep the brand alive.'