UK beer campaign appoints new director

A campaign to “bring Britain back to beer”  has appointed a new director to lead its “ambitious plans” for 2014.

Let There Be Beer launched just six months ago to help kickstart the beer industry and has since gained support from more than 48 breweries in the UK and built a website promoting more than 400 beers which continues to grow each week.

This week the campaign announced the appointment of David Cunningham as its new Programme Director, to lead the next stage of the movement’s development in  2014 and beyond.

Mr Cunningham was previously chief marketing officer at Accolade Wines and previously held positions as business development director UK & Europe for Constellation Wines, and global marketing director of Guinness.

He said: “I am really excited about taking on this new role and the huge challenge it presents.

“I’ll be building on the campaign success to date and working hard in partnership with the whole beer industry to create a consumer campaign that reignites the nation’s love of beer in all its glorious forms.”

A spokesperson from Let There Be Beer said, ‘We are delighted to have David on board and leading the development of Let There Be Beer as we begin to roll out our ambitious and exciting plans for 2014.

“He brings a wealth of experience and insight to the role and we are looking forward to working with him.’

Since launching the campaign in June 2013, Let There Be Beer has been working with the UK brewing and pub industry including Nicholsons and Fullers pubs, and breweries including Shepherd Neame, Deeside, Thwaites and Youngs.

Their involvement in the campaign includes being listed on lettherebebeer.com, the development of media partnerships with Esquire and The Sun, and the promotion of the craft of brewing through exclusive brewery tours for readers of The Times.

David Cunningham said “There is an ever more diverse selection of beers available in our pubs and supermarkets. One of our aims is to showcase as many as possible, encouraging people to discover this wonderful range of flavours and tastes.

“The Let There Be Beer website now showcases over 400 beers and gives consumers ideas of foods that they can match to enhance further their beer drinking experience. Keep an eye out for more exciting developments coming up over the next few months.

“This is just the start and eventually we would like to have to have all beers in the UK featured on the site.”