News: October 2009

Scottish & Newcastle has announced that its brewery at Dunston, Gateshead is to close in 2010, with 63 jobs under threat.

The brewery, formerly owned by a co-operative of local clubs and home of the Federation brands, was acquired by S&N in 2004, at the time that it was closing its own Tyne Brewery in Newcastle.

The Tyne Brewery was the home of Newcastle Brown Ale and, by moving the beer, across the river to Gateshead, the company was able to retain some credibility for the beer as a local product.

Now Newcastle Brown and other beers produced at Dunston are to be brewed at the company’s Tadcaster brewery in North Yorkshire.

Dunston – which S&N, now part of Heineken, claims is only working at 60 per cent capacity – is the second brewery due to be axed by the multi-national next year. The Berkshire Brewery, built as the new home of Courage at the turn of the 1980s, has already been slated for closure.