Shepherd Neame to spend £15m on a smaller Faversham brewery and drop Singha

Shepherd Neame is scaling down brewing at Faversham to focus on its own brands, The Caterer and MCA report from its AGM trading statement.

The plan - £15m over three years on a modern, smaller brewery inside the existing Bottling Hall, which closes in mid-2027 to be converted. - A mixed model: brewing in house, with functions such as small pack outsourced. - No more large third-party brewing contracts. The exclusive licence to brew and distribute Singha Lager ends in April 2027; that contract brings in £10.3m of revenue now. - Funded through the sale of non-core property. - The rest of the site becomes a 10-year development: offices, retail, a pub, events space, a visitor experience and a new Brewery Square.

Trading - Managed like-for-like retail sales up 6.4% for the 17 weeks to 24 October. - Tenanted like-for-like income up 1.1% to 26 September. - Total beer volume down 0.6% and own beer volume down 2.2% over the 17 weeks.

The pub side: investment continues, currently weighted to London pubs and shifting towards coastal inns and hotels. The group will keep selling outlets with limited potential and recycle the cash into its best sites.

So what for groups: a vertically integrated brewer is choosing a smaller plant and a sharper estate over volume. With pubs growing and beer volumes falling, the capital is following the pubs.