Family-owned brewer Wadworth is achieving greater flexibility with a new facility while retaining its historic roots
Proudly entering its 151st year, independent brewer and pub company Wadworth is making huge strides in the South of England. Based in Wiltshire, the company now owns 147 pubs across several counties and the brewery itself recently relocated from the 1885 Northgate Brewery to a state-of-the-art facility on the edge of Devizes. Wadworth’s move in 2023 to the new Folly Road facility is also expanding brewing flexibility and sustainability initiatives.
The fifth-generation family business was founded by Henry Wadworth and his business partner John Bartholomew – great-great-grandfather of current Managing Director, Toby Bartholomew. Toby joins Food Chain, along with Commercial Director, Adam Russell, to discuss the relocation, new product launches, and how Wadworth plans to overcome current challenges in the UK hospitality industry with strategic investments.
“Covid-19 hit us hard in 2020,” Toby begins. “We had to close pubs which meant we suffered a severe loss of income, and we’ve since been in recovery mode – but we also had a chance to clean up the business and execute our move to the new site on Folly Road. The brewery is now much more efficient, and it costs a lot less to produce beer. Plus, we have a solid team in place now – it’s all about getting the right people around you.” He continues, explaining that the previous site became untenable: “The old brewery was built when we were producing around 130,000 brewer’s barrels. The cask market across the UK has been in decline since the 1990s and our barrels had fallen to 11,000, so we were basically sat in a huge brewery that was highly inefficient. We needed to move.”
Flexible batch brewing
That decision in 2021 led to a two-year build partnering with German manufacturer Braukon. “From water coming in, to beer going out, there are about 150 miles of pipework in the Folly Road site whereas it was three miles in the old place,” Toby states. “We use 70 percent less gas and electric, we’ve installed solar panels, we generate our own nitrogen, and our fermentation vessels are closed.”
With the minimum brew originally comprising 70 barrels, Wadworth’s upgraded brewery can go down to 20 barrels, allowing for smaller batches and efficient testing of new products. Adam explains how this has enabled craft beer participation. “The Folly Road site can brew smaller runs of different styles, giving us more opportunity to trial beers and find out what works. Having our own pubs enables us to learn very quickly.”
That said, traditional cask remains core across Wadworth’s pubs. “We’ve got four permanent brands, led by 6X, a classic amber ale with over 100 years of history,” Adam shares. “We also brew eight seasonal cask ales through the year which lets us have fun experimenting and keeps our guests interested. We currently produce a hazy IPA, a Helles-style lager, a nitro stout and we recently launched a fruit flavored lager. It enables us to explore different parts of the beer category and access different demographics – for instance, craft beer drinkers versus our traditional cask ale drinkers.” Named after the new facility, Wadworth’s Folly Road line of beer is exclusively available in its own pub estate and brewery shop, which makes it special. “You can always expect something unique in our pubs,” Adam shares. “Products that you won’t find in other pub companies or supermarkets.”
Although it has transferred to a modern facility, the group was keen to preserve over 150 years of history at the former brewery – with part of it being transformed into a Wadworth tap room. “The Northgate site is being partly developed into housing and commercial units,” Adam reveals. “We are planning on taking one of the units to redevelop that into a tap room, not only showcasing our beers but also marking our heritage.” Toby adds: “Although it was somewhat sad leaving our old brewery I’m pleased that there is a very bright future ahead for this historic building and area.”
Not only is the Northgate building being conserved, Wadworth is also keeping a notable signwriting tradition alive by converting one of its former pubs. “We’ve adapted an old pub into our signwriting studio,” highlights Adam. “All our signwriting is completed in-house, and we have two remarkable signwriters, responsible for hand-painting our signage and applying the famous Wadworth gold leaf writing. We’re really proud to carry on this tradition for each and every one of our pubs.”
Investing in pubs and people
Toby’s priority for the business in 2026 is to continue to focus on delivering brilliant customer experiences – despite current cost pressures. “This year is all about driving sales by providing an even better guest experience. I think everybody is aware of the pressures being faced by our hospitality industry,” he indicates. “We’ve just had duty increases on alcohol. The national minimum wage goes up again in April and we had an increase in National Insurance contributions last year. From every angle, we’re being hit – however, I strongly believe the best way to combat these hardships is to outshine our competitors and continue to invest in our pubs and our people. We are still recovering from Covid and playing catch up with our investments into our pub estate. We are probably still two or three years away from getting the pub estate up to the standard we expect but we will get there and then we will start to look at other opportunities from an acquisition point of view. “
Demonstrated by its significant profit growth, Folly Road transfer and upcoming investment focus, Wadworth continues to prove that family ownership and operational efficiency go hand-in-hand when running a successful brewing company.