St Austell Brewery set to cut up to 40 jobs

A Cornish brewery firm has said it is consulting staff over a possible "reduction of up to 40 roles".

St Austell Brewery, which employs more than 2,000 people across the South West, said it would be "reviewing its operational structure" as new employment costs would place "significant additional financial strain" on the 174-year-old business.

When the rise in National Insurance was announced in the Budget last autumn, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it was the right choice to fund public services.

St Austell chief executive Kevin Georgel said the company needed to take "difficult but necessary steps" to secure its future success.

St Austell operates 160 pubs across the region and breweries in St Austell and Warmley, near Bath.

Mr Georgel said the brewing and hospitality sector had been through an "extraordinarily difficult few years" but had passed those challenges.

But he said those difficulties had been compounded by the significant increases in National Insurance announced by the chancellor to start in April.

He said the additional cost of employment was £3m a year and it was "not realistic" to "pass on all the increased costs to our guests or customers."

Mr Georgel said the decision to explore potential redundancies was "not taken lightly" and added "teams in their managed pubs" would not be included in the process.

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