Carlsberg Britvic, the UK arm of the Danish brewer Carlsberg, plans to close the Marston’s Brewery in Burton upon Trent along with the main logistics operation on the same site. The closure is expected in summer 2027, and around 310 colleagues are affected by the proposal.
The company says the brewery and the logistics operation will keep running through the transition period. Chief executive Paul Davies tied the decision to a long slide in demand for the style of beer the site is best known for, noting that “UK cask ale volumes have more than halved in less than a decade”. He described the brewery’s history in Burton as iconic and told the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) that no final decisions have been made. The plan follows a £6 million investment in the site that was meant to refurbish the cask ale line and add craft capabilities.
Hobgoblin, McEwan’s and Brooklyn have been named as priority ale brands that will stay in the portfolio, while Carlsberg is looking for new owners for other cask and regional ales. Beers brewed at Burton that could be moved elsewhere or disappear include Marston’s Pedigree, Bass, Wainwright, Old Empire IPA, 61 Deep, King Goblin, Lancaster Bomber, Pearl Jet and EPA. One unnamed industry source said Carlsberg sees itself in the UK as a soft drinks company first, with lager second and ale a distant third. Carlsberg bought Britvic for £3.3 billion in 2024, completing the deal at the start of 2025, and the venture was previously known as Carlsberg Marstons Brewing Company.
CAMRA chairman Ash Corbett-Collins reacted sharply, saying: “This is an absolute disgrace.” He called for an outcome in which others could act as custodians of the cask brands. The trade press has also recalled that Carlsberg undervalued and then sold the site’s 19th-century Burton Union fermentation sets, a system closely linked to the brewery’s identity.
The proposal adds to a run of closures among long-established British breweries. Tetley’s Leeds brewery shut in 2011, ending 189 years of brewing in the city, and Jennings in Cumbria closed in 2022 after more than 190 years before locals bought parts of the brand. Wychwood in Oxfordshire closed in late 2023, Ringwood in Hampshire followed in 2024 when no buyer was found, and a closure has been announced at Banks’s in the West Midlands. Consultation on the Burton plan now runs ahead of the expected shutdown next summer.
