Wold Top Brewery

Italians say ‘sì’ to Yorkshire beer

An East Yorkshire farmer turned master brewer is impressing the Italians with the quality beers produced at his award-winning micro brewery near Driffield.

Tom Mellor and his wife Gill took up the brewing business in 2003 in an effort to diversify the activity on their mostly arable, 230 hectare farm at Wold Newton. Today Wold Top Brewery is an on-farm micro-brewery using the Mellor’s homegrown barley and pure chalk filtered water from the farm’s own borehole.

Tom said: “We pride ourselves on the high quality of our ingredients which are mostly locally sourced and which give the beers, such as our Wold Top bitter, their unique flavour. I believe that the taste of our beers combines the distinctive characters of both the Yorkshire Wolds and the East Coast.”

While the Wold Top brand is rapidly making a name for itself in the UK, the brewery has been working with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to examine the possibility of export sales. 

Tom explained: “We have been working with Stephan Stahl, our international trade adviser in the Humber region. He got us involved in UKTI’s Passport to Export programme as part of an initiative to identify potential sales in some of the nearer European countries. Stephan also helped us identify funding to attend a beer exhibition in Copenhagen in September this year which gave us an opportunity to see where our beers fit in the international market.”

Recently Tom joined more than 30 other companies from the Yorkshire and Humber region at UK Trade & Investment’s third overseas International Business Network (IBN) in Milan. He commented: “I saw the IBN in Milan as an opportunity to go and put a toe in the water, in terms of getting our brand known in Italy. While we know the Italians are great wine drinkers, there is a growing market, particularly in Northern Italy, for international niche beers and this was an area I was keen to explore.

“Short trips like this are ideal for small firms like mine where you can’t afford to spend too much time away from the business. It also allows you to operate with a safety net, as it’s not unlike a school trip in that there’s a certain amount of hand-holding.   However I had to keep my wits about me as the UKTI team in Milan had set up four meetings for me with Italian companies, all within the space of two hours. This gave me a chance to showcase my beers to food and drink importers and specialist beer retailers.

“One of my meetings was with a beer specialist shop in Milan. Selling everything from brewing kits to collectible beer mugs, they also stock 500 beer brands from around the world and they were so interested in my brand that they immediately wanted to make an order. I also met up recently in the UK with one of the beer importing companies I met in Milan and we are currently working on the logistics of sending out a palette of our beer to them before Christmas. Both these contacts were a very positive start to what I hope may grow into real business in Italy, and possibly beyond.”

Stephan Stahl, international trade adviser for UK Trade & Investment, said: “The IBN is generating some exciting overseas business opportunities for Yorkshire and Humber companies. The events, held regularly throughout the year, both across the region and overseas, have rapidly become another UK Trade & Investment service that is priming the region’s exports.” 

For further information please visit: www.woldtopbrewery.co.uk/