Tetley relocation to create up to 30 jobs

Up to 30 jobs will be created at Wolverhampton's Park Brewery after it won the job of producing Yorkshire's famous Tetley Bitter.

City-based brewing and pubs group Marston's was awarded the work after more than a year's negotiation with Tetley owner Carlsberg UK.

Carlsberg is insisting many of the details surrounding the deal are kept confidential, but it is understood the Wolverhampton site will be brewing more than 30,000 barrels of cask Tetley a year from the beginning of 2011.

Today Marston's director of service and supply Richard Westwood - former head brewer at the firm - said hundreds of thousands of pounds would be spent over the next few months creating a "brewery within a brewery" to produce cask Tetley.

The 135-year-old brewery, part of Marston's Chapel Ash headquarters site which employs around 1,000 people, can currently produce around 250,000 barrels of Banks's and Mansfield ales a year.

The aim is to start brewing Tetley by October. Marston's will then launch an intensive 12-week testing process to ensure their Tetley bitter meets the exacting standards expected by Yorkshire drinkers.

Once full-scale brewing starts, in January next year, Mr Westwood said there would be increases in shift work and possibly a return to seven-days-a-week brewing. "We will be recruiting between 20 and 30 people for the brewery, plus others in areas such as packing.

"We will also be investing in new technology and new equipment to increase our capacity."

The beer has been brewed at the Joseph Tetley Brewery in Leeds for 188 years but Carslberg announced 18 months ago it was going to close the site.

Announcing the switch this week, Andy Hume, Carlsberg's brewery director in Leeds, said: "We looked at all realistic options in Yorkshire to brew Tetley's cask. However, there was not the suitable capacity available.

"As such we needed to find the best option outside of Yorkshire in terms of quality and processes and Marston's provides this."

The move has met with disappointment and anger in Yorkshire, with one MP calling for a boycott of Carslberg lager.

Richard Westwood said: "Tetley drinkers are right to be concerned. It is of the utmost importance that we retain the flavour of the ale.

"We can adjust our water to perfectly match that used in Leeds, so it is identical. The most important thing is the yeast. It is a unique twin strain and it is important we maintain the right balance. They will be bringing the Tetley yeast down to Wolverhampton, where we will keep the production of the ale totally separate from the rest of the brewery.

"Once we start brewing we will be carrying out a series of controlled tests and blind tasting sessions, tweaking it until we are bang on. It is normally a six to eight week process, but we are giving ourselves 12 weeks to get it absolutely right.

"We can be rightly proud that we have been chosen to produce such a famous cask beer," he added.