Key facts
- The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has seen its membership decline to an eight-year low.
- Camra reported a financial loss of £800,000 in the past year.
- The organization has cancelled its Great British Beer festival indefinitely due to financial constraints.
- Camra cites competition from large multinational brewers and the cost of living crisis as reasons for its financial difficulties.
The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) is facing significant financial challenges, with its membership numbers dropping to an eight-year low and the organization reporting an £800,000 loss last year. This downturn has led to the indefinite cancellation of its Great British Beer festival and a restructuring that included redundancies.
Camra's chief executive, Tom Stainer, attributes these difficulties partly to the market dominance of large multinational brewers, which he claims create an 'illusion of choice' and make it hard for smaller, independent breweries to compete. He highlighted that these large companies offer incentives to pubs, such as cheap packages and minimum purchase orders, which can force pubs to stock fewer independent beers. Camra is calling for an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority into this alleged market stranglehold.
Independent pubs, such as the King Charles I in King's Cross, which is community-owned, do not face these issues and can freely choose their cask ale offerings. The manager, Matt Roberts, noted that cask ale still constitutes a significant portion of their sales. However, even in pubs that champion real ale, like The Devonshire in Soho, where landlord Oisín Rogers exclusively drinks real ale, popular choices like Guinness, produced by multinational Diageo, are frequently ordered by customers.
Stainer also pointed to the broader economic climate, stating that the cost of living crisis makes it harder for individuals to justify membership fees, which are £35 per year, when facing rising costs for essentials like energy and food.