Britain could see a shortage of bottled beers in the coming weeks, as a result of the rising costs of producing glass, drinks suppliers have said. Food and drink wholesaler Dunns Food & Drinks says the price of glass bottles has increased by as much as 80% in recent weeks, so the global supply of bottles is set to fall.
As reported by shopping and consumer goods magazine The Grocer, some breweries are set to switch their bottled drinks to cans to help combat increasing costs, but others will continue bottling their drinks - though they'll inevitably have to put their prices up to make up for the shortfall. Operations director at Dunns Food & Drinks, Julie Dunn explained: "Our wine and spirits suppliers from around the globe are facing ongoing struggles that will have a knock-on effect. As a result, there could be less variety in the bottled beers we see on UK shelves. Some breweries will convert to cans to ensure consistent supply, whereas others will look at this as devaluing the brand so will inevitably pass the additional cost onto beer drinkers."
Co-founder of Vault City Brewery, Steven Smith-Hay has outlined the company's ongoing plans to change from glass bottles to cans, to help keep the costs down. "We started introducing cans to our release schedule in January because of rising costs and challenges with availability," he told The Grocer. "This was initially just for our session sours and supermarket range, but because production prices are so high, we've decided to make all our beers can-only from June, with the exception of a few special releases each year.
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"We're paying roughly 65p per bottle just now, which is around a 15p jump on what we were paying six months ago. If you think about the volume of beer we're bottling even as a microbrewery, the costs really start to pile up. It's just not viable to keep going in that direction."
As well as the increase in the cost of glass, the price of malt and fruit has risen - meaning the costs of producing beer have ultimately increased as well. Richard Wardrop of Vault City explained: "The cost of the fruit we use in the beer has gone up significantly. [And before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine was] the biggest supplier of malt, which is the number one ingredient of every beer - the price of malt has gotten [sic] more expensive.
"We also had an issue with some of the kegs that we sell into bars. Essentially, the connectors were manufactured in Ukraine as well. So we had to switch from the keg that we use, because some of our suppliers advised there was going to be a shortage. [It's ] safest for us to move entirely to cans - you're essentially trying to keep prices the same by offsetting some of the other costs."
