Nearly 100 jobs at risk in latest Carlsberg brewery closure

Nearly 100 jobs could be at risk after Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) revealed plans to close a 150-year-old Wolverhampton brewery.

Under current proposals, Bank’s Brewery will shut in autumn 2025 as part of a restructuring plan.

Beer has been brewed on the site since 1875 and it now employs 97 people.

CMBC said the decision was driven by the end of a license partnership and the decline of cask ale volumes over several years.

It said it would work with trade unions and staff representatives to support employees impacted by the closure.

This is the fourth brewery closure or sale CMBC has explored in the past two years.

In October 2022, the brewer closed Jennings Brewery in Cumbria and announced plans to sell the Eagle Brewery in Bedford to Spanish brewer SA Damm just a few weeks later.

CMBC also closed the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire last year after failing to find a buyer for the business.

Ash Corbett-Collins, chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), said the closure of Bank’s Brewery was “devastating but predictable” after Marston’s sold its stake in CMBC to Carlsberg earlier this year.

“This also demonstrates the huge pressures that even global brewers are facing from the high taxation of beer, energy and raw material costs,” said Corbett-Collins.

As part of the restructuring, CMBC plans to increase investment in its breweries in Northampton and Burton and a new logistics depot in the Black Country region.

Its long-term aim is to establish Marston’s Brewery in Burton as a national centre for craft beer and traditional ale in the UK.

Paul Davies, chief executive of CMBC, said: “This has been an extremely difficult decision, however it has been necessary to restructure our business to maintain our competitiveness in a challenging UK beer market.”