Pub rescued for villagers by expanding brewery

With the hospitality industry facing difficult times ahead due to the cost of living crisis, one local brewery is bucking the trend and expanding to take on its first pub.
Pub rescue. From left – Tony Pygott – director, Jan Antink – bar manager, and Tony Carter, brewery pub manager.Pub rescue. From left – Tony Pygott – director, Jan Antink – bar manager, and Tony Carter, brewery pub manager.
Pub rescue. From left – Tony Pygott – director, Jan Antink – bar manager, and Tony Carter, brewery pub manager.

Eight Sail Brewery, based in the grounds of Heckington Windmill, has taken on the lease of The Old Ship Inn in Pointon after the landlord expressed plans to retire and close up at Christmas.

Co-director of the small-scale brewery, founded in 2010, Tony Pygott foresaw exciting times ahead, revealing that he had his eye on a couple more pubs in the future once this one gets up and running.

He said: “It is an opportunity for us to sell more beer. The pub isn’t massive but it is much better to keep the business open as a village amenity.”

saved - The Old Ship Inn at Pointon. From left – Tony Pygott – director, Jan Antink – bar manager, and Tony Carter, brewery pub manager.saved - The Old Ship Inn at Pointon. From left – Tony Pygott – director, Jan Antink – bar manager, and Tony Carter, brewery pub manager.
saved - The Old Ship Inn at Pointon. From left – Tony Pygott – director, Jan Antink – bar manager, and Tony Carter, brewery pub manager.

Bar manager Jan Antink and her staff will be staying on in the business, using her knowledge of the customers to maintain continuity.

They also plan to continue subletting the restaurant to the Bombay Brasserie, of Boston, which is popular among locals.

Tony explained that although they run a tap room at the brewery, it does not have the other aspects of a pub such as food, TV or sports teams.

He said there were no plans to drastically change things as it is a viable business with a pool team, a lot of trade from the village footballers at weekends, as well as quite a young local customer base.

Taking on a ten year lease on Monday December 5, Tony said they are in it for the long haul, hoping to do some renovation of the property inside and out, while learning the finer points of the pub trade in readiness to take on more outlets in future in need of rescuing and revamping, with the brewery’s pub manager Tony Carter.

Planning permission is being sought this week with a view to relocating the brewery kit to farm buildings at Burton Pedwardine to allow them to expand due to growing demand.

He said: “I know quite a lot of people in the trade have struggled these last few years but we have increased our trade over that period.

"We believe there is a viable trade as some people still want to go out and socialise and pubs are still offering that facility.

"To see more pubs closing would be a crying shame and we are keen to keep village amenities alive.”

Tony said they took on the farm buildings for storage space when they expanded the seating area at the tap room at Heckington. The plan is to install new, bigger brewing kit at the farm.

"We cannot brew enough beer for the demand, so it is needed,” he said. They are also looking at starting canning and keg products to tap into the lucrative and trending ‘craft beer’ market, while they have also just brewed their first lager.

"We are looking into lots of different aspects of the business and building on them to have more market options,” Tony said.

"Our set up has been more for pubs, but we wanted to get into the beer at home market with cans which don’t have sediment in them like bottles which do not sell well into cafes and restaurants.

"We needed to have more options so there has been a big expansion of thinking over the last couple of years,” he said.

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