International Beer Day- How the Inn Collection Group is brewing success across the North

As part of Bdailys focus on International Beer Day, we hear from the Inn Collection group’s, commercial manager, Gary Turner. Inn Collection Group operates pubs across the North of England and they proudly ‘stay true to their pub roots.’

Gary said: “The Inn Collection Group ethos is all around making people happy, inclusive of our staff as well as our customers. Beer plays a central role in our business, therefore a central role in our ethos, so we always strive to offer a wide range of good quality beer to keep customers happy.”

In their endeavours to provide high quality beers to patrons, the Inn collection group gives their sites free reign when choosing what beers they stock: “Each site has autonomy over their cask ales, allowing us to showcase fantastic local breweries to that site such as Hadrian and Border, Alnwick Gold and Hawkshead Breweries. We work with both local, independent breweries as well as big names, which takes us back to our offering of good quality beer.

“Especially in the tourism market, offering these locally brewed beers allows the customers a well-rounded experience of the location that they are visiting, whilst enabling us to support these smaller, independent breweries.

“Similarly, there is still a place for the big names and we work closely with Molson Coors (our main supplier), which allows us to offer familiar favourites to customers such as Madri, Coors, Aspalls and so much more,” said Gary.

In an industry where large chains can often offer prices that other businesses simply can’t match. Inn collection group however, set out to provide what other chains won’t: “We believe that our offering is different to our competitors, with our focus on our mission to provide fantastic pubs with rooms, serving delicious food and a brilliant selection of drinks, that is why customers visit but also keep coming back.

Competition from other chains isn’t the only challenge faced by the Inn Collection group, as Brexit has presented the industry with a new set of hurdles. Discussing Brexit Gary commented: “One key impact of Brexit was the notable price increase across the board which we have had to adapt to.

“However, As a business we kept a close eye on Brexit as it inevitably effected transport links, overseas operations, imports and exports of goods and so much more, however the majority of our produce and what we offer comes from within the UK and our local suppliers, which is something we really pride ourselves in.”

Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns brought about challenges which placed a massive burden on the hospitality sector. Gary added: “as a business, we’re all about creating confidence among our customers and our team. We quickly implemented numerous measures and frameworks to increase safety, whilst also continuing to offer top quality customer service.”

“The past few years have shown the resilience of the hospitality industry as a whole, to bounce back after such grave setbacks, which of course bodes well for the industry. However, given everything that has happened it’s difficult to truly forecast performance in the future.”

With the Inn Collection Groups durability through so many challenges, they don’t plan on slowing expansion anytime soon, discussing their growth strategy Gary said: “We will be continuing with our buy and build growth strategy, where we focus on acquiring and building sites beautiful areas that we know guests will love.

“Our approach ensures we target the right locations at the right times. We’re excited for numerous reopenings in 2023 including our site in Tynemouth, as well as ones in Ripon, Ambleside and Knaresborough.”