Can employee ownership protect independent brewers?

Many independent breweries continue to decline amid "growing uncertainty" in the industry, but one business say they think they have found a way to secure their future.

Rebellion Brewery in Marlow, became employee-owned on Friday, meaning all profits go back into the business and employees can receive tax-free bonuses and a stake in its success.

The Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) says more breweries are looking at the model as many now adopt a community-led approach, via direct sales and tap rooms.

But can it work for everyone?

In 1993, owners of Rebellion Tim Coombes and Mark Gloyens had a vision to revive the centuries old tradition of brewing in the Buckinghamshire town.

When the Wethered Brewery closed its doors five years earlier, it was the first time the town had been without a brewery since 1758.

"Traditionally the brewery was the heart of the town and we've always wanted people to feel welcome and wanting people to think that it's their brewery," Mark said.

They now have 75 staff members and brew around 87,000 pints of beer every week, with more than 95% of the beer it produces sold within a 30-mile radius of Marlow.

But challenges have been felt across the brewing sector with year-on-year declines in businesses making beer.

SIBA and the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) say one of the reasons for a decline is that the majority of beer produced and sold in the UK is owned by four global conglomerates who squeeze independents off the taps.

And it's meant that for breweries like Rebellion, just making beer to sell in pubs isn't enough.

Tim said: We've always done beer direct to the consumer from our site. And that's helped us diversify from just supply and trade.

"We developed an entirely new shop, a home delivery service, a drive-through on site and then in the last four years we've developed a tap yard on site."

Tim and Mark said this business model has meant customers feel as though Rebellion "is their brewery", and is one of the reasons for becoming employee-owned.

Retail supervisor Lauren Plumridge said the news came as a "relief".

She had "heard about what's been going on" elsewhere in the industry, and said that it's "lovely to see it staying with the employees, not going to shareholders, which is where you risk commercialisation."

Production Manager Adam Weatherley said it came as a "surprise" but that he'd "always thought about the direction of the company and I think it's a really positive way of going to the next stage of the business."

Tim and Mark have decided to transfer ownership to an Employe Ownership Trust (EOT).

The trust owns the company and the profits are put back into the business where employees control how those profits are spent, rather than paying shareholders.

It also provides a 50% capital gains tax relief for share holders disposing of their shares into the trust.

And for employees it means they can receive tax-free cash bonuses each year. But it is also designed to allow employees to have the say in the future of the business, and a feeling that they have a bigger stake in it's success.

Co-managing director of Abbeydale Brewery in Sheffield, Toby Grattidge, which became employee-owned in 2024, said more staff were staying on since the change.

"Fundamentally not much has changed at the business but how people approach work and their effort has improved."

At Abbeydale they have a board which includes two elected employees who stay in the role for two years.

"People are more committed. It's their money. From staff feedback we have since introduced free private healthcare and increased paternity leave. We are very open book," he said.

Marya Besharov from the Said Business School at Oxford University said an EOT "doesn't guarantee anything"

"But having a diversity of perspectives and having the people at the front lines of the organisation having a stake in the business are both very powerful ways of generating high performance."

Tim said they could have tried selling Rebellion to one of the bigger breweries, "but you only need to look back at how that generally pans out for those breweries and it's not very good unfortunately."

In the Oxfordshire town of Witney, it's nearly 200 year brewing tradition ended after Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company took over the Wychwood Brewery, famous for Hobgoblin beers, and then decided it should close in 2023 as part of a shift to centralise production in Burton-on-Trent.

That was until earlier this month when the brewer announced the Burton factory would be closing - where residents described the town being stripped of its "brewing identity."

And nearly 300 years of brewing came to an end in Abingdon when Morland was bought by Greene King in 1999 and production moved to Suffolk.

Andy Slee, CEO of SIBA, said "50% of brewers tell us that their principal objective is simply survival.

"Firstly, incredibly high taxation. Secondly, the costs that are rising and then lastly is access to their local marketplace."

He's calling for a reduction on draught beer in pubs ahead of the budget amidst what he describes as "suffocating level of taxation".

On employee ownership he said it is only right for breweries of a certain size and ethos, "but certainly for those that want to protect their identity and retain their unique place at the heart of the community."

And for Rebellion, a brewery whose name suggests something out of the ordinary, it seemed the logical next step.

"We just want to make sure that we can safeguard the brewery here in Marlow for the future going forward, not just for the staff but also for our local customers that have remained so loyal to us and the local community," Mark said.