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New owner for Battledown Brewery in Cheltenham wanted as business founder retires
A new owner of a Cheltenham brewery is wanted as the current owner retires. Battledown Brewery was set up by Roland Elliott-Berry in a “quiet back street” of the town centre.
What started as a “passion project” and a “glorified hobby” in 2005 turned into a “thriving business”. In 2020 the brewery moved from Keynsham Street to Coxhorne Farm in Charlton Kings joining Sibling, the gin distillery set up by Roland’s four children – Felix, Clarice, Cicely and Digby.
But after nearly 20 years of working in the beer trade, Roland is wanting to “slow his pace of life a little”. And his children, who are co-owners of the brewery, want to sell it on to someone else while they concentrate on the distillery.
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Cicely said the sale of the brewery is a “funny combination of good feelings that our dad can potentially retire and a strange ‘heartstrings’ feeling of our family moving on from where we first started”.
She said her mum, Stephanie and dad, had sold their art agency in 2005 and were looking for a new challenge when they realised what they wanted to do.
“With our dad being a passionate home-brewer, that [new challenge] came in the shape of starting their own real ale brewery.
“Over the years, it grew from a glorified hobby into a thriving business, with all of our family involved at times. It gave my siblings and I the passion to go forward and start our own drinks business once we were old enough – we owe a huge amount to BB.
“In 2020, around the time of the pandemic, we decided to invest into the business, to install a state of the art brew-plant on-site with the distillery (we have half the building each), rebrand (as Battledown Brewing Co) and create a more modern craft beer brewery. We now make not only classic ales, but lagers, IPAs & Stouts among other things.
“We are so proud of what has been created and love to show off the new range at the distillery.
“However, our dad is now in his 70s. He has grafted hard since he was a teenager and wants to slow his pace of life a little and have more time for his hobbies.
“He recently went viral on Tik Tok for making beautiful stained glass and paintings and has actually received lots of commissions for them – something he loves to do but is finding it hard to find time for.”
Cicely said there were many benefits of taking over the brewery but they only wanted to take serious inquiries as “this is a dear business to us”.
She said: “We all love the brewery, but think that the time is right to sell the business to people with the energy to really push it forward. The beers have quite literally never been better, same with the branding, but unfortunately we don’t have the time to give it the attention that it deserves.
“It has a strong and loyal customer base and is ripe for growth with the right people at the helm. There are huge benefits to having both businesses on the same site – including with the bar we are opening and the on-site shop space.
“We would love to talk to people with a serious interest in acquiring this business and working alongside us at our beautiful Brewhouse/Distillery on the edge of Cheltenham/ the Cotswolds.”
She said the fully functioning, 5* brewhouse comes with a maximum capacity of 1225 Hectolitres per brew in its current form, but that output could be doubled. There is also a large cold-store and keg storage area.
As well as a customer list, website, existing contracts and an expert handover with the option of consultation from our dad who’s seen it all there are also recipes for the current range plus many more specials from recent years.
The family has spent “a lot of money” on the building which comes with a long term lease option and “is perfect for a craft brewery”. She added “it is ready to be operated immediately” after acquisition.
She said: “We are happy to plan a sit down talk with anybody with interest, however we would need proof of funding or similar before planning a date.”
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