A Belgian beer festival will be saying ‘sante’ (cheers) to British beer – including two from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership area – at the end of this month (April).
Buxton Brewery and Thornbridge Brewery, both based in Derbyshire, will be part of a delegation of 13 English breweries taking part in the Tilquin English Beer Festival 2016, in Bierghes, Belgium, on Saturday April 30 and Sunday May 1. The D2N2 LEP – the private sector led partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, and other organisations promoting economic growth in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – will have the highest number of breweries from its area represented at the beer festival, after London.
Earlier this month (April) Thornbridge Brewery announced a £2million expansion of its operations, following a year in which it has opened one bar in Holland and announced its intention to open another in Finland.
In October 2014, D2N2 awarded Thornbridge Brewery a £78,000 grant – through its Unlocking Investment for Growth (UI4G) programme – to help jump-start the craft brewer’s own ambitious plans to expand production and increase its international exports.
Food and drink manufacturing is one of D2N2’s eight key economic sectors.
Other British breweries at the Tilquin English Beer Festival 2016 are:
- Beavertown Brewery, Brew by Numbers, Partizan Brewing, Kernel Brewery, Weird Beard Brew Co – of London;
- Burning Sky Brewery – East Sussex
- Cloudwater Brew Co – Manchester
- Magic Rock Brewing – Huddersfield
- Moor Beer Company – Bristol
- Siren Craft Brew – Wokingham
- Wild Beer Co – Somerset.
The UI4G grants scheme – which is now closed – was funded by the UK’s Regional Growth Fund and the European Regional Development Fund, and awarded through D2N2’s Investment Panel, with the aim of creating long term sustainable jobs. Its investment is eventually expected to create more than 400 new jobs, double that estimated at the programme’s beginning.
For more information on Thornbridge Brewery, click here
For more information on the Tilquin Beer Festival, click here
To see other recipients of UI4G Grants, click here
Media wanting more information on the above can contact Sam Burbage, Social Media and Marketing Officer at the D2N2 LEP, on 01159 578254, or by email sam.burbage@d2n2lep.org
