As the UK’s oldest brewery, the Wrexham Lager Beer Co has entered a new era characterized by international expansion
The Welsh city of Wrexham has gained a fair share of media coverage in recent years, especially since its local football club, Wrexham AFC, was purchased by North American stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2020. The subsequent hit documentary, Welcome to Wrexham, has not only created worldwide awareness of Wrexham AFC, but also Wrexham’s community and local businesses.
As a key sponsor of the football club, including the ‘Wrexham Lager Stand,’ the Wrexham Lager Beer Co has benefitted from increased brand awareness around the globe. However, as the producer of the UK’s oldest lager, the company’s history extends far beyond its involvement with Wrexham AFC, with historical documents showing the lager available on White Star Line’s ships, including the Titanic.
We’re lucky enough to converse with James Wright, CEO, to learn more about the history of the Wrexham Lager Beer Co and how its resurgence is fueling international growth. “The recognition from Welcome to Wrexham has been phenomenal; Rob and Ryan’s involvement with the club has not only resulted in two league promotions, but has created awareness around Wrexham brands,” James begins. “The Wrexham Lager Beer Co has played an integral role in the community for decades, but the media coverage about our involvement with Wrexham FC creates a wonderful springboard for our international growth.
“Such attention is not limited to football fans either, as our heritage entices all kinds of people to engage with our brand. It’s rare to find a brand that has the depth of history and quality that the Wrexham Lager Beer Co has. We have lots of historical documents, including a menu from the Titanic featuring our lager, that we’re curating into a digital archive. While our history is a gift, we must be careful to use it in a relevant way that appeals to consumers of today while respecting generations before us.
“Historically, many breweries opened in Wrexham due to its soft water, and the Wrexham Lager Beer Co’s brewery, built by two German immigrants in 1882, is the oldest lager brewery in the UK. The company’s products gained traction with merchants, being sold in several high-end locations like Harrods and Savoy Hotels, as well as laying claim to being the first lager imported as far as India.
“The subsequent decades saw a modernization of the brewing industry and unfortunately, the brewery shut down in 2002 after several difficulties,” James narrates. “The Roberts family, who are Wrexham-born, found a link to the Wrexham Lager Beer Co through their ancestors, and later decided to purchase the brand’s rights and rebuild the brewery, which reopened in 2010. The family contacted several of the original brewers to gain their expertise and used original recipes to reestablish the brand while paying homage to its heritage.
“Although it’s primarily a family business, I had an opportunity to come onboard around nine months ago. My career background has seen me grow international brands like Red Bull and Whitley Neil, so with the Wrexham Lager Beer Co looking to expand overseas, I entered the business to grow market awareness and capitalize on growth opportunities.”
Global expansion
Turning to growth, James shares that the company’s strategy is based around four key pillars. “Firstly, quality is key; we don’t use chemicals to speed up the brewing process, instead leaving the lager to brew naturally for over four weeks,” he explains. “The products – Wrexham Lager, Wrexham Export, and Wrexham Pilsener – are original recipes and we’ve implemented several checks to ensure both quality and consistency. Our lagers have also won several awards, including gold medals in the Asian Beer Challenge and in Frankfurt, Germany.
“The second pillar is to strengthen brand awareness through our values of community and hard work, which fits very much with the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’
ideology. We want to introduce a great tasting lager to all corners of the world, but we first must ensure our branding, assets, and trademarks provide a sufficient overhead structure in which to scale production. Understanding our customers is also key, as well as putting the right team in place to drive our footprint and identify additional routes to market.
“Our third and fourth pillars are all about expansion and brand awareness,” he states. “In the UK specifically, we’re changing the dialog from being a regional business with limited growth opportunities to instead becoming a national brand that engages with national grocery chains. As we’ve grown in the UK, we’ve opened new channels like convenience stores and wholesale, as well as securing contracts with major players like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Iceland, and The Co-Op.
“In terms of international expansion, we’ve recently launched across Scandinavia and we’re about to go live with distribution across Australia through a listing with Dan Murphy’s, a premium chain of convenience stores. The ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary has naturally raised awareness of the Wrexham Lager Beer Co across the entirety of North America, particularly in Vancouver, Canada, the home of Ryan Reynolds. This awareness is transpiring into several conversations with North American distributors to bring our products to the US and Canada.
“I’m happy to tell you that Wrexham Lager will be available to drink in the stadiums during Wrexham FC’s tour of Canada,” James reveals. “With such elevated awareness, we’re preparing to launch in some US stores, and we’ve invested in someone on the ground in Canada to accelerate partner discussions.
“Further down the line, there’s scope to explore the APAC region as we bring quality lager with genuine history to more consumers and introduce them to the wonderful world of Wrexham. However, we’re cautious to build an appropriate footprint and brand assets that enables stable scalability. We’re also mindful to leverage our heritage to help establish Wales as a region of excellent brands. We’re working closely with the Welsh Government, for example, to boost awareness of the demographic and bring investments back into Wales.”
Future expansion
To cope with increased demand and international expansion, the business is planning to build a new brewery just around the corner from its original site. “We’re aiming to launch the new brewery by Autumn 2025 to upscale our manufacturing operation,” James elaborates. “As part of the complex, we’re establishing a brewing museum to explore the history of brewing in Wrexham, where there were once 40 breweries!
“We’re also strengthening our commitment to ESG and community engagement. Across our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, we’re addressing thew ways in which we can recapture and reuse some of the energy and steam used in the brewing process to create a circular energy recycling process. In terms of our packaging, we’ve partnered with Ardagh to compare our use of virgin versus recyclable materials and identify varnishes that enable recyclability.”
As our conversation ends, James offers an endearing view on the company’s future. “It’s important for any business to constantly look ahead, and the Wrexham Lager Beer Co is no different,” he concludes. “We have a great understanding of our customer journey and how people engage with our brand, and we’re looking forward to strengthening this further as the new brewery becomes operational next year. Currently, our primary focus is to ensure we have the appropriate processes and operating procedures in place to facilitate worldwide growth while ensuring the products’ consistent superior quality of our product remains.”