Brewery targets Glasgow for first move into pubs

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on 09/11/2012 00:00

ARRAN Brewery yesterday unveiled plans to open its first pub, just a week after announcing a merger with the Isle of Skye Brewery.

The enlarged company has chosen a former bank building in Glasgow city centre for its maiden foray into the on-trade, which is still subject to planning permission and licensing approval. Managing director Gerald Michaluk is in the final stages of raising £10 million from investors to build a larger brewery on Arran, a bottling plant and his chain of pubs.

The first site could be up and running as early as March and will be kitted out by Burns Interior Design, the company behind the popular Clachaig Inn in Glencoe.

Michaluk said the bar will stock his beers and those made by Angus MacRuary at Isle of Skye Brewery, along with “an international selection of craft beers on draft”.

He told The Scotsman: “I’d like to have pubs in all of the universities towns – that’s a no-brainer. In years to come, I’d like to get up to the limit for the number of pubs a brewery can own [2,000]. We’re not just looking at the UK – we’ve also had interest in opening a bar near San Antonio in Texas.”

Arran Brewery is the latest drinks maker to open pubs. Fraserburgh-based BrewDog opened its first bar in 2010 in Aberdeen and now has eight pubs throughout the UK, with two further outlets due to open in the months ahead. Innis & Gunn also experimented with a “pop-up” bar in Edinburgh during the festival.