Popular Ringwood Brewery to close after Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company fails to find buyer

Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) has today announced plans to close its Ringwood Brewery and shop. The venue was popular for brewery tours.

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Under the proposals, the site itself will be put up for sale, with production of the Ringwood brands moved to other breweries in the CMBC network – brewing for the cask variants of Razorback, Fortyniner and Boondoggle would be moved to Banks’s Brewery, whilst Old Thumper cask brewing would go to Marston’s Brewery.

Razorback, Boondoggle and Fortyniner bottles are already brewed at the Marston’s site. The logistics side of the operation has already been moved to CMBC’s Tiverton and Farnborough sites. Over the coming weeks, CMBC will consult on the proposals with the 10 colleagues who work at the site, during which time Ringwood Brewery will continue to operate.

Ringwood Brewery was founded in 1978, and after outgrowing its original premises, moved to the current site in Christchurch Road in 1986. In 2007, Ringwood was purchased by Marston's for £19.2m. Marston's disposed of its brewing operations in 2020, selling assets to a joint venture with the Carlsberg Group to create the Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company.

Paul Davies, CEO of CMBC, said: “Having, over the last six months, been unable to secure a sale of our Ringwood Brewery operation in Hampshire, we have made the difficult decision to announce our intention to close the site. Given its limited space and residential location, the expansion and improvements required for the site to be competitive would be challenging and extremely costly. While we believe this is the right course of action for our business it is by no means a decision we have taken lightly.

“We are incredibly proud of the effort and dedication of our people at Ringwood Brewery – our priority now is to support colleagues affected by the proposals through the consultation period, which has now begun.”