POWERED BY PEOPLE

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Ey up. These are challenging times we find ourselves in. Local businesses and employers need your support more than ever.

The line between prudence and panic. Outlined below are Ilkley Brewery’s plans and responses. They will be updated as the situation progresses.

26th March 2020

It’s a hard balance for this industry, as our currency is of course beer. We decided that beer drops for NHS workers wouldn’t be appropriate just now, as many of these heroes are working back-to-back, tirelessly to keep us safe and treat those affected by COVID19 and the host of other illnesses that affect people on an ongoing basis.
So, in partnership with our on-trade customers, we are starting a fund to reward the hard-working frontline staff when this is all over: we have followed Cloudwater’s lead in introducing a £1 NHS token on our webshop. You can add these to your order, and we’ll be putting them together to pay for treats to be awarded to NHS workers – a meal for 2, a B’n’B stay, a Spa-day and so on. A way of supporting our key customers when they re-open for business too.
Some of staff have registered with the local Mutual Aid as volunteer drivers, and we have “donated” one of our vans to help the community effort.

We have now placed the majority of our staff on Furlough, ensuring that jobs are kept on.
A minimum of staff are on site to keep the lights on, the beer brewing and the deliveries on the road. We believe it’s important that those on lockdown continue to have access to the things they want to keep them going, and to keep their spirits up – no-one should be restricted to “basics”.. bread and water all round? We don’t think so. We also feel that although there is beer in the supermarkets, getting online delivery slots is difficult (impossible?) and so if we can help keep people indoors and away from shops by delivering to doorsteps, then that’s better for people.
We have introduced a rota for those remaining at work, to ensure that people can keep safe, and seperate. This means we are reducing shift length, but increasing our operating hours and being more flexible. This will hopefully mean we can start to deliver over a braoder period too, including weekends, to spread out the pinch points for contact.
All of our deliveries are zero-contact, including online/phone payment for all purchases.We have closed the brewery to non-staff entirely. There will be no further collections from the shop. Deliveries only.
All beer being picked and packed for delivery or shipping will be handled by staff in full PPE. All deliveries will be made using the same safeguards.

We have been overwhelmed by the community support and the success of our webshop. At points the orders are coming in faster than we can put them on our system. A massive thank you to all who’ve stocked up already.
We have reduced our van delivery routes to cover Ilkley/Burley/Addingham, Skipton, Bradford & Keighley, Otley, Harrogate and Leeds only. Private customers and bottle shops within these areas will continue to be serviced by our dedicated drivers. Deliveries outside these areas, and indeed nationwide, will be handled by DHL.
We are running low on a few more popular lines, such as Alpha Beta and Lotus, but have lots of tasty alternatives – Hendrix is tasting banging, and we have Crossroads as an alterntive IPA.
We are exploring other ways of bringing you beer – it seems that when isolated at home on your own, getting through a 72 pint cask is a bit too much of an ask! So watch this space for mini-kegs (5ltr) options for our cask range.
We are looking to help out our local pubs, who now have zero cashflow, but potentially a lot of stock, to collect and consolidate some items, and create some “pub at home” boxes, including wine and snacks and so on alongside our beers. Watch this space.

18th March 2020

We are supporting all of our staff in their individual circumstances, encouraging home-wokring wherever possible.
We have implemented social distancing within the workplace to safeguard our staff.
Our already intensive cleaning and sanitation regimes have been boosted with additional hand gel at every work station and throughout the brewery. Full PPE is used during production and packaging.
We are cancelling all planned site visits by contractors, suppliers and customers. Appointments and meetings can be made online or by phone. Our team remains contactable throughout our regular working hours to field questions and of course take orders.

We currently have good stock levels and do not forsee running out of beer anytime soon. That said, we encourage you to put plans in place to ensure you have enough beer in case of future disruptuption.
We are operating normal delivery routes until further notice, subject to driver availability. Our drivers are briefed on minimising contact on deliveries, maintaining a distance of 2m from staff at all times, and where possible conducting conversations outside or in well-ventilated spaces. Their vans are fully stocked with hand sanitiser and they will thoroughly clean all surfaces between each delivery.
We have started home-deliveries to members of the public. Initial focus is local, but we will expand to cover our existing delivery routes wherever possible and for as long as these routes remain viable. More details can be found here
We are talking to Mutual Aid UK and other neighbourhood groups to explore how we can utilise our team, and the resource of our vans, to combine our deliveries with helping people in isolation on a more general level. More details to follow.

Stay safe lovely people. Keep connected.

LUKE RAVEN