News

Private equity firm’s plans for craft breweries questioned by former worker

09 August 2024 By Jessica Mason

A former Purity brewer who escaped working for Keystone Brewing Group, formerly called Breal Group, has told db that the private equity firm never understood the value of that acquisition.

Speaking exclusively to the drinks business, Woodforde’s Brewery head brewer Aaron Taubman, formerly of Purity, said: “Purity was like diamond. But I don’t think Keystone has ever really realised how good Purity is.”

Taubman who was brewing at Warwickshire’s Purity for the past a decade, left the business earlier in the year and joined Woodforde’s Brewery in Norfolk.

His departure from his role at Purity coincided with the business being bought out by Keystone (formerly known as Breal Group) which had already snapped up Yorkshire’s Black Sheep and London’s Brew By Numbers and Brick Brewery before consolidating the businesses and moving brewing to Yorkshire.

Real challenge

But Taubman, who still has friends and ex-colleagues at Purity, told db: “For Brick and Brew By Numbers, they’re actually also brewing some of those beers at Purity now and not just at Black Sheep.

“From what I hear at Purity it’s a real challenge to brew all these different beers. I also hear that Black Sheep needs a lot of work. The whole industry is under-invested.”

Taubman studied brewing at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago and has already won five Great American Beer Festival medals for his beers, and was an integral part of Purity and its brewing skillset before he moved to Woodforde’s.

“I still have friends there and it’s really sad,” he added.

Jumping ship

Since Taubman’s arrival at Woodforde’s, he has introduced a craft range named New World Brewing as well as an English lager to the Norfolk brewery’s traditional portfolio.

Earlier in the year, sources close to the scene warned: “Breal is doing everything it can to hide the fact that everyone is jumping ship and all of these breweries are losing their identities because this is about money, not beer or people or even respecting the integrity of the brewery or its brands. These are all just assets that will be dumped further down the road”.

Also leaving a brewing business bought by Breal’s Keystone Brewing Group, Black Sheep Brewery’s CEO Charlene Lyons quietly departed the Yorkshire-based business after nearly a decade at the helm.

Breal

The private equity firm Breal Group, now known as Keystone. has historically worked with the steel and aviation sectors and is based in London’s Cavendish Square, is headed up by Brent Osborne and Alan McLaren.

At the start of the year, a spokesperson for the private equity firm assured that it “has no existing plans to consolidate Purity into any other brewery” and stated that “Purity will be able to use to the entire Breal Brewing sales team across the country, to gain further reach”.

Breal/Keystone has been contacted for further comment on its consolidation of brewing businesses, but has so far stayed silent.

Brewery closures jump 82% in 2023

Keystone makes Black Sheep staff redundant amidst costly rebrand