York brewery boss recalls 'beers, tears and cheers' of their first ten years

Local IQ Business Networking event at York St John University. Pictured speaking is Lee Grabham of Brew York. (Image: David Harrison)

One of the co-founders of an iconic York businesses has looked back over his venture’s first ten years, saying “it’s not all roses, there are ups and downs.”

Brew York production director Lee Grabham told a York Press/ York St John networking event that it’s been a decade of “beers, tears and cheers” at the brewery.

Lee, who has a background in science and project management, worked for Aviva but had the chance to take redundancy to do something more creative.

Co-founder, managing director Wayne Smith had worked for Shepherds Engineering and also got the chance to be made redundant.

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The pair had met at a stag do in Hamburg and both had an affinity for real ale.

Wayne made homebrew, as did Lee who started homebrewing at 15, with both brewing in their back gardens.

In 2015, when they were made redundant, they took the redundancy, added some family money and launched Brew York the following year.

Lee told the business meeting: “Build it and they will come.”

“We are now one of the most innovative UK breweries.”

Such innovation is seen it its fruity Pale Ale Juice Forsyth, which now comes in a low alcohol version.

However, he warned the story of Brew York is “about adversity, adaptation and resilience.”

Lee and Wayne signed the lease to their Walmgate premises just days before the 2015 floods, which left the brewery underwater.

Asda and Tesco wanted too sell their beers and for a time Brew York supplied them but they later withdrew supermarket sales due to taxes being higher and production increased.

“It was like stepping from a lower rate taxpayer to a higher rate taxpayer,” Lee explained.

Furthermore, prior to Covid it was not considered ‘cool’ for craft beers to be sold in supermarkets.

However, the pandemic happened and by then Brew York was selling direct and to the supermarkets. It had also installed a new canning line just prior to covid, so they could put their beers in a can.

Lee said: “Some of what we did were worse decisions, some was luck. We realised that to have future success, we had to have diversity.”

This led to Brew York supplying bottles, cans, kegs and to supermarkets, its own bars and to export.

Whilst the Walmgate bar was profitable, they realised retail kept them afloat, leading to further bars in Pocklington and Leeds. Now, there are ten venues overall.

But has Lee repeated: “It’s not all being a rosy success.”

The Leeds bar was in an office district, which made sense pre-covid, he said, but it became a lossmaker afterwards, with people still working from home.

Last autumn, Brew York appointed Geoff Hodgson, who has a top-level background in brewing and hospitality.

Lee said: “Geoff told us to focus on what works. Why are you spending so much time on what doesn’t work. Get rid of the damn thing.”

It means Brew York was freer to dispose of things not working, like the Leeds bar. It won’t be the last and new ventures now have a two year shelf life, Lee said.

It makes for a business with three strands - there are the tap rooms, Inns with character or the Brew+ restaurant brand that serves its beer.

Altogether there is a business with £5.5million of retail sales, £4.5million of brewery sales and employing 180 staff. Production is 1.7million litres a year, set to rise to 2-2.2million litres this year.

Lee told the gathering there were key lessons.

He said: “Do not fear change, risk or failure. A true entrepreneur is about taking risk. If you fail, you are smart enough to learn from it. We have made many mistakes but we learnt.”

Furthermore, Lee continued: “The ability to adapt and deal with change is also what makes you good.”

However, “some people won’t come with you, which is a hard lesson.”

When Brew York doubled its production with a £2million brewery at Handley Park several years ago, it was “too much” for most and Lee “lost friends” as “they weren’t able to adapt.”

He told the meeting: “Sometimes it’s easier to start afresh with new people who had no ideas of the old ways.”

A final lesson, Lee continued, was “make sure you have a rear view mirror.” So you could see what went on before and learn.

Looking to the future, Lee said the venues at Pocklington, Knaresborough and Otley would be refurbished.

There would be consolidation before any further retail acquisitions, though nothing yet is planned. There would be infrastructure upgrades and expanding the main production site to “secure our future.”