Scotland wholesaler warns shortage of bottled beer

The UK may see bottled beer stocks plummet as a result of increasingly rising production costs, Scotland wholesaler Dunns Food and Drinks has warned.

According to reports, Julie Dunn, operations director of Blantyre-based wholesaler, has warned that a number of global suppliers are already dealing with glassware shortages, as prices have jumped by 80 percent in the last 12 months due to rising energy costs.

“Our wine and spirits suppliers from around the globe are facing ongoing struggles that will have a knock-on effect – as a result, there could be less variety in the bottled beers we see on UK shelves,” said Dunn.

“Specialist bottles and glassware hold a very important place in the heritage of the beer industry and I expect that while some breweries will convert to cans to ensure consistent supply, others will look at this as devaluing the brand, so will inevitably pass the additional cost onto beer drinkers.

The warning comes after beer experts in Germany said the country could be facing a glass bottle shortage this summer, with small and medium-sized breweries expected to bear the brunt of the impact.

“We sell a huge amount of beer from Germany, so I would expect us to feel a fairly seismic hit in the very near future. It won’t be long before the glassware shortage hits UK consumers.”

Reports further stated that brewers in Scotland are already taking action to combat rising production costs.

Edinburgh-based brewery Vault City Brewing has announced that it will switch to predominantly can-only releases from next month.

“This was initially just for our session sours and supermarket range, but because production prices are so high we’ve decided to make all our beers can-only from June, with the exception of a few special releases each year,” reports quoted Vault City’s co-founder Steven Smith-Hay as saying.