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Road convoy of 30-tonne beer drums draw crowds
Three ginormous brewery drums being delivered in convoy to the Molson Coors UK brewery in Burton proved an unlikely spectacle, with crowds gathering en route to witness the impressively wide load crawl through Staffordshire by police convoy.
PC Beardsley from Staffordshire Police’s Tactical Support Team with the wide load. Credit: @StaffsRoads&Tactical
The 30-tonne, 20 metre vessels reached the final leg of their 600-mile journey from their manufacturing plant in Emmen in the Netherlands on Tuesday, arriving to the brewery by police convoy.
The wide load slowly made its way through Staffordshire and Derbyshire, closing many roads along the way, including a stretch of the A38 in Staffordshire, at one point being halted by a fallen branch.
The journey was documented by Staffordshire Police’s roads unit, tweeting from their @StaffsRoads&Tactical account, who at one point reported to have travelled eight miles in three hours, with overhead wires and fallen branches proving recurrent obstacles.
Each of the fermentation vessels has the capacity to produce 400,000 litres of beer, the equivalent of 840,000 pints.
Their arrival at the brewery marks another milestone in a multi-million investment programme in its Burton facility, which has been underway since 2011.
In 2014, the brewery announced it was to invest a further £28 million in its Burton Brewery, taking its investment to £75m, making it one of the biggest single capital investments in British brewing for decades.
The investment is being used to improve the brewery’s technology and infrastructure and support the production of 1.2 billion pints of beer of its beer brands, which include Carling, Coors Light and Cobra.
A new energy centre is also being built as part of the redevelopment, helping the brewer to achieve its target of reducing energy use by 25% and cut greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020.
Victoria Segebarth, UK supply chain director at Molson Coors UK & Ireland, said: “Burton is at the heart of the UK brewing industry with around 1.1 billion pints leaving the brewery gates every year. We take pride in being Molson Coors’ biggest European Brewery and are continually investing in the Burton site to ensure the brewery will keep brewing fantastic beer for a long time to come.
“We’re passionate about brewing great beer and investing in our future, all designed to support our overarching ambition to be First Choice for Consumers and Customers.”
The journey was documented by Staffordshire Police’s roads unit, tweeting from their @StaffsRoads&Tactical account.
The brewery drums shut down a section of the A38 en route to the Molson Coors Brewery in Burton, following a 600-mile journey from the Netherlands. Credit: @StaffsRoads&Tactical
Wide loads we r moving tomorrow r slow & huge! With many branches & phone lines needing cutting/ lifting pls check our route 2 avoid delays pic.twitter.com/GPz4DU2RjR
— StaffsRoads&Tactical (@RoadPolicing) June 5, 2017