Brewery taken on by new owners

A Shropshire brewery which was forced to close after 20 years has been taken over by new owners who say they will transform its brewing operation.

Hanby Ales, of Wem, was put into administration but now all jobs at the business have been saved after new owners bought its assets and started up the Wem Brewing Company.

The new business is operating from the same site, on Aston Park, and the former business owner Jack Hanby is now employed as head brewer.

The other two members of staff at Hanby have also been employed by the new brewery, and two new jobs have been created for sales people.

Simon Gilchrift, owner of the Wem Brewing Company, today unveiled ambitious plans for the brewery to install a bottling unit at the site and hope to take over the management of the Sun Inn at Welshampton, which has been empty since 2006.

Mr Gilchrift and his business partner, Stephen Woodland, who run Mercia Capital, an insolvency consultants based in Newport, say they plan to actively promote beer brewed by Jack Hanby and are already in talks with Sircar Builders of Whitchurch, which owns the Sun Inn.

Mr Gilchrift said: "We are optimistic and we have quite ambitious plans to put a bottling plant in and take over the Sun Inn, so we will have the production, packaging and sales of the beer."