Member Article

Brewing partnership with Northern roots has Global ambitions!

A young, entrepreneurial, Bradford man has joined forces with an award-winning brewer to launch an exclusive craft beer brewing company in Yorkshire with sights set on a world-wide market.

The Northern Monk Brew Co, based in Shipley, is launching its first beer this July, using a ‘cuckoo brewing’ practice popularised in Scandinavia, where brewers borrow the facilities of a local brewery which reduces overheads and helps with cash flow during the infancy of a business.

Russell Bisset connected with Rising Stars, which is jointly delivered by Bradford Council and the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, to realise his ultimate dream of opening a brewery.

Business co-founder David Bishop is a local beer brewing enthusiast and blogger. David has won awards from Saltaire Brewery, Copper Dragon, Roosters and Ilkley Brewery for his home brewing.

Russell explained: “I wanted to start a brewery that was progressive, bold and dynamic but one that still paid homage and tribute to what I felt was the best of the British beer scene; the heritage, integrity, history, provenance and tradition of what is a quintessentially British drink. David shared this vision and with the help and support of some fantastic people this has started to become a reality.”

Russell and David combined their business and brewing skills to put a plan into place.

Russell said: “We had corporate knowledge and a very real passion and expertise for brewing beer, but we needed help to start up a small craft oriented business. Regular meetings with Rising Stars encouraged us to develop a more formal structure to our business plan and advised on areas such as accounts and legal issues. Now we have very forward thinking and secure plans, we can be ambitious and manage the growth we hope to achieve.”

Northern Monk Brew Co. launches at the Sparrow Bier Café in North Parade, Bradford on Thursday 18 July at 7pm and will be stocked by select specialist beer bars and shops across the North of England.

Carolyn Coleman, Business Services Manager at Rising Stars, said: “What attracted us to working with the Northern Monk Brew Co wasn’t just the pair’s vast knowledge of the quickly growing sector, but their acumen of international sales environments. What, at first, seems like a very ambitious plan is actually a very achievable short-term goal, especially with Russell and David’s skills and passion in place.”

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Employment, Skills and Culture, said: “We have some strong brewery brands in the Bradford District so it’s important to maintain that by nurturing the next generation of business success stories. The combined passion and determination of these two businessmen is impressive and exactly the kind of business which can benefit from support from our Rising Stars programme.”

For further information about Rising Stars and the Council’s Business and Enterprise Programme visit www.rising-stars.biz.

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