Matt Starbuck

WELCOME TO PINT SIZED

A lot has happened since I wrote my last Pint-Sized intro! It’s been an exceptionally busy Q2 with the announcement of our plans to invest £40 million in developing a new state-of-the-art brewery in Bury St Edmunds taking centre stage. Our proposal to move to a custom-built, modern facility truly cements our long-term commitment to both British brewing and Bury St Edmunds, and it will drive meaningful progress towards our sustainability goals.

I’m delighted that with the support of our owners, CK, we can continue investing in our business so we can sustain our brands in market for many years to come with this planned investment forming a key pillar of our transformation strategy. As I have previously stated, we are at the very early stages of our pre-planning process, and you can read more about our proposals on pages eight and nine of this edition. If you have any questions, ideas, or feedback, please get in touch with us at askgk@greeneking.co.uk.

We will of course, share more news on this as the project develops but I would like to personally thank everyone for the support and positive sentiment you have shown so far.

The Euros are now in full swing! We know this is a huge trading opportunity for us so please do get out to support our pubs as we continue to host the nation over the next few weeks. Hopefully many of you will now have tried False Nine, our very own seasonal beer brewed specifically for the tournament, and it’s fantastic to see the work going in to try and raise £1 million for Proud to Pitch In – again you can read more about this inside. Hopefully we have something bigger to celebrate after the final on the 14th July.

Whilst there is lot’s to be excited about, we can’t get away from the fact that trading remains tough out there. We continue to operate in a challenged environment, customers remain under pressure and are really thinking carefully about where and when they spend their money – it’s great to see Liz Wells, Insights Director, talk to this on page 12, and shed some light on what we can expect from customers as we continue in to the second half of the year.

With this in mind, we will continue to chase every opportunity to grow sales and to remain relevant in how we promote our own brands with customers. We are winning market share yet are still underperforming vs our budgeted expectations, so I acknowledge that this year has been challenging. I do, however, remain confident in our plans and what we can deliver with our brilliant beers, brands, and people.

Thanks to all of you for your dedication and hard work so far.

Enjoy the read.

Thanks,

Matt