Scotland’s Eden Mill buys English brewery and doubles output

Scottish brewer and distiller Eden Mill has announced that it is to acquire Eden River Brewery in Cumbria for an undisclosed sum, allowing it to more than double its current capacity.

In a statement announcing the acquisition, Eden Mill, which is based in Guardbridge just outside St Andrews, stated that the move would allow it to bottle and can some of its product range in England, allowing for a “quicker and smoother distribution.”

Eden River Brewery, based in Penrith in Cumbria, has its own bottling plant and will increase Eden Mill’s output by around 50,000 nine-litre cases, more that doubling its current capacity.

The deal will also bring 12 new jobs to the area. Eden Mill added that it will continue to distill its gin and whisky and brew beer at its site in Guardbridge.

Paul Miller, co-founder of Eden Mill said: “Thanks to a growth trend amongst our customer base and our ongoing partnership with big retailers such as, Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, our acquisition of Eden River Brewery will allow us to drastically increase our production of many of our products.”

“Eden River Brewery is highly complementary to our business and we share commonalities in products and approach, making us hugely excited about our combined potential.”

Jason Hill, director of Eden River Brewer, added: “When we were approached by Eden Mill, I knew immediately that this was the kind of company, and the right team of people we could work with. We all had a vision of the quality products and identified that highlighting the ‘craft’ aspects of our products would allow for us to expand yet stay personal to our customers.”

“Like Eden Mill, our company is very hands on and we are invested in making sure we are part of perfecting our products from conception to consumption. Everyone here at Eden River is looking forward to a positive and prosperous new year.”

Founded in 2012, Eden Mill produces a range of beers, gins and gin liqueurs. Last year, it released its first single malt whiskies – a collection of seven different expressions packaged in 20cl bottles using different mashbills, processes, maturation techniques and wood-types.

In November 2017, it invested £150,000 in a gin blending experience based at the Macdonald Rusacks Hotel in St Andrews.

In February last year, it announced a £4 million expansion plan to move into the new University of St Andrews Eden Campus, also located in Guardbridge.