Tours and Courses
The Start-Up Brewery Survival Course
If you’re thinking about starting a brewery or have recently starting brewing commercially you’ve come to the right place. We’ve done it, surviving ten years in a fiercely competitive business, and now you can learn from our experience – our mistakes as well what we got right!
The Start-Up Brewery Survival Course is about the business of brewing rather than the brewing process. We will take you through a brew on the first day of the course, but always reflecting on where the brewing sits within the bigger picture. You’ll be able to see what our equipment does and what our general procedures are, although we will not be giving away too much about the finer points! We would expect you to have some familiarity with the general brewing process, even if it is at just the home brew scale.
We look closely at cash flow, being the life blood of the brewery, and the various factors that impact on your ability to survive and grow. We also cover issues such business structure, legislation and compliance, for example, what the various things HMRC and other authorities expect us to do. We also deal with sales, marketing, packaging & distribution: how you tell people you’re brewing great beer and how you get it to them. And we consider the advantages and disadvantages of setting up your own retail outlet.
In short, we get down to the real nitty-gritty of setting up and running a microbrewery, giving you access to knowledge and opportunities that will give you a better chance of survival and growth.
Course Delivery
Mark Arnott-Job (MA Ed) , founder and owner of Two Towers Brewery, is the course leader. After 20 years teaching Business and Economics in further and higher education in the daytime and brewing in his spare time, Mark started the brewery in 2010. The business has survived the recession and the rapid expansion of the brewing industry (by business set-up). Having moved its location in the summer of 2016 to its current premises at the rear of its Edwardian tap house, the Gunmakers Arms, close to Birmingham city centre, Mark provides a fighting example of how to survive and grow amid the most challenging circumstances.
Darren Campbell (PhD Chem), divides his time between Two Towers Brewery and Aston University, where he is Director of the Engineering & Applied Science foundation programme. His brewery roles include business development, administration and social media, as well as making a valuable contribution to the brewing!
Sanjay Varma, has been with the brewery since 2013 and now manages the brewery’s dedicated tap house, the Gunmakers Arms. Sanjay’s long experience in food retail business management adds another dimension to the expertise within the TTB team, covering the issues associated with retailing the brewery’s products.
Price
We offer two ways of accessing and paying for the course:
as part of a 12-month TTB Subscription Membership, costing £37.90 (plus VAT) per month, which, as well as the course, offers access to peer support; opportunities for co-operation on distribution; collective sales & marketing opportunities; potential for corporate scale discounts on malts, hops and other supplies; opportunities for support in statutory compliance services such as fire regs, pest control, secondary waste disposal and more.
OR
as a standalone course for £390 (plus VAT).
Lunch is included on both days and there will, of course, be beer!
Booking
To book, please email: enquiries@twotowersbrewery.co.uk
