Rising production costs could trigger bottled beer shortage, wholesaler warns

Leading Scottish wholesaler Dunns Food and Drinks has warned that rising production costs could lead to a nationwide shortage of bottled beer.

Global suppliers are already struggling as the cost of glassware production has jumped by 80% amid increased energy prices, with beer experts in Germany also warning of potential shortages.

Julie Dunn, operations director at Dunns Food and Drinks, said: “It won’t be long before the glassware shortage hits UK consumers. Our wine and spirits suppliers from around the globe are facing ongoing struggles that will have a knock-on effect. As a result, there could be less variety in the bottled beers we see on UK shelves.

“Specialist bottles and glassware hold a very important place in the heritage of the beer industry and I expect that while some breweries will convert to cans to ensure consistent supply, others will look at this as devaluing the brand, so will inevitably pass the additional cost onto beer drinkers."

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in the UK, making up more than £7.1b of expenditure in 2020.

In an effort to pre-empt shortages, Edinburgh-based craft beer brewery Vault City Brewing will switch to can-only releases from next month.

Steven Smith-Hay, co-founder of Vault City, said: “We started introducing cans to our release schedule in January because of rising costs and challenges with availability. This was initially just for our session sours and supermarket range, but because production prices are so high we’ve decided to make all our beers can-only from June, with the exception of a few special releases each year.

“We’re paying roughly 65 pence per bottle just now, which is around a 15 pence jump on what we were paying six months ago. If you think about the volume of beer we’re bottling even as a microbrewery, the costs really start to pile up. It’s just not viable to keep going in that direction.”

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